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THE
GLOBE
NEW REVIEW OF WORLD-LITERATURE,
SOCIETY, RELIGION, ART
AND POLITICS
CONDUCTED BY
WILLIAM HENRY THORNE
Author of " Modern Idols," etc.
VOLTJIVIK VII.
a^ A\\- 1897
Decker Building, New Yoric City
Copyrighted, 1889, by W. K Thome.
CONTENTS.
Aaron Burr In Mississippi Lucy Semmea Orrick 2T6
About The Hierarchy W. H. Thorne 266
About Shelving Protestant Parsons " 413
An Editor's Logic In New Light " Tl
A New Literary Genius " 14
Are We A Christian Nation? Elizabeth A. Adams IT
Betterment of the Masses W. H. Thorne 21T
"Bluff King Hal" A. Oakey Hall 860
Beauty for Ashes W. H. Thome 1
Catholicism Under Elizabeth Thos. E. H. Williams 145
Cardinal Gibbons' New Book W. H. Thorne 136
Catholicism Under Elizabeth Thos. E. H. Williams .. 145
Catholic Liberalism and Nationalitt. W. H. Thorne 180
From Oxford to Rome Caroline D. Swan. 127
Father Casas on the Cuban Kbbelliom Prlscllla Alden 172
Globe Notes W. H. Thorne 101-231-354
Gems by the Wayside *' 839
Greater New York and More .' " 869
Hildebrand The Great M. P. Heffernan 420
Heathen Comment on Christianitt George Parbury 193
In San Onofrio Abigail Taylor 14
INA Coolbrith's Poems M. J. Whyte 83
In Memoriam W. H. Thome 247
Love as a Factor of Development Irene A. Safford 436
Must The Negro Go?... W. H. Thome 896
Marriage Vows AND Others " 84
Modern Velocities Caroline D. Swan
POETRY.
An Octave E. A. Robinson 179
As Phybne atElbusis A. T. Schuman 74
Contentment J. W. Schwarz 479
From Lowest Depths Henry Coyle 266
Foregleams W. H. Thorne 281-166
Lovest Thou Me Francis W. Grey 127
Mater Dei E. C. Melvln 258
Mary's Joy Abigail Taylor 413
Nature's Impression J. W. Schwartz 350
On Angel Wings Francis W. Grey 824
Rest Thou Dear Heart E. C. Melvln 144
Saint Ubsule's Dream Abigail Taylor 316
To A Human Skull Chas. A. Keeler 70
The Old Road Henry S. Welster 275
The Wondrous Excellence A. T. Schuman 839
The Deathless Deed J.W. Schwartz 230
Touches of Nature W. H. Thorne 489
The Immaculate Child A. T. Schuman 895
The Corn and The Vine A. deSegur 458
Your Outward Beauty A. T. Schuman 193
Puke Tone Caroline D. Swan 259
Quay versus Wanamaker & Co W. H. Thorne 74
Religions and The Religion A. Oakey Hall 888
Schemers and Victims A. H. Smith 348
Stray Lights on Cuba Elizabeth Foster 327
Some Spanish and Cuban Poets Mary E. Springer 445
The Magnetic Power OF ROME Caroline D. Swan 403
The Master Force of All W. H. Thorne 454
Times are Hard— Translation Le ObaervateurlLouislanais. ... 474
The Reformation of Ireland Thos. E. H. Williams 2S6
The Hawthornes Again W. H. Thorne 816
The Sonnets of Keats Henry G. Taylor 381
Two Books by Two Lawyers W. H. Thome 84
The Reconciler c-'i " 118
^
CHARACTEEISTIC NOTICE.
The latest number of William Henry Thome's quarterly, The
Globe, contains six articles by himself. Among other contributors
is A. Oakey Hall, who writes of " Bluff King Hal." While many of
the articles are well written, strong and earnest, the charm of The
Globe has always been in the pugnacious style of its editor in what-
ever he attacks, and his feariess stand, regardless of feelings or con-
sequences. We do not indorse his writings, but we enjoy reading
what he has to say. New York: W. H. Thome, Decker Building. —
The Boston Times, October, 1897.
THE GLOBB,
IsO, XXV.
MARCH, 1897.
BEAUTY FOR ASHES."
Lay Sermons by an ex-Peeacher. Text — Isaiah, Chap. 61,
Verse 3.
I WILL quote from the first verse of this wonderful outburst of
heavenly glory conveyed to us by the words of the prophet in the
sixty-first chapter, or canto, of the world-poem of Isaiah:
" The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; for He hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up
the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and a release
to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn in
Zion, to give unto them Beauty for Ashes, the oil of joy for mourn-
ing, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may
be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He
may be glorified/'
As I read over and over again for the hundredth time this master
vision of the prophet Isaiah, I marvel at the impotent littleness of
all our modem thought and expression.
Shakespeare, Dante, Virgil, Homer, seem tame and circumscribed
before the all-encircling sun-splendor of the poet-prophet of the
day of the world's redemption; and when time and again these last
thirty years I have read of little soul-shriveled women, and padded,
and posing, and blustering atheists of the Miss Anthony and Bob
Ingersoll species as denouncing the scriptures — wanting to make a
new Bible — a woman's Bible — an atheist's Bible — a Bible to square
2 THE GLOBE.
with the American Declaration of Independence, with amendments
including black and white, male and female suffrage, etc., etc., I
wonder if these wretched pigmies of humanity have ever read Isaiah
and St. Paul, and if they have any conception of the place in literary
culture and history these writers would hold to the end of time,
even if all claims as to their inspiration were given up forever.
In truth, it was their literary greatness no less than their divine
light that led to their being called inspired.
It is a useless problem, however, to consider the mental claims of
clowns. What are a few pig-squeals compared with those eternal
waves of harmony in which our world, and all worlds, and all ages
of all worlds have floated 'mid echoing splendor since the primal
chaos of Time's first mornings yielded to the star-fire and sun-
rays of God's first and last creations, wherein Beauty for Ashes
became the ruling law of the universe, and the leading theme of
angels and archangels, of poets and prophets, and all the master
singers of time's great anthems and oratorios, down to Beethoven
and Wagner and our own last days?
In truth, only a faith God-given, a vision God-illumined and a
heart and hand and pen all God-inspired, could ever have coped
with the problem Isaiah was called to explain and sing.
At best, in one or in a hundred sermons, we can but give the
faintest echo of the prophet's treatment of this, the ruling theme
of all true prophets, poets and composers time out of mind and until
the end of time — yea, from eternity to eternity.
For the endless ages began, and all future eternities will repeat,
and still be radiant with this world drama and dream of Redemption
by and through the incarnate God.
Every thought of man fades before this master thought, as a cloud-
speck fades before the majesty of the rising sun. One soul sees the
vision through one form of words and sjrmbols, and another through
other forms.
The unpoetic may find his clearer faith through didactic dogma
and ecclesiastical symbols, and as the vast majority of the human
race are unpoetic, still, with hearts to be eased and souls to be fed,
the very heart of the Incarnation has been enshrined in the altars
of the Church, where the learned and the unlearned, the poetic and
the unpoetic, may, by faith, taste and see that the Lord is good for
ever and ever.
But while this form of divine ministry is accessible to all and
' ' BE A UTT FOR ASHES. ' ' 3
adapted to all, the more poetic soul will forever get his clearest
vision of the fact through the means that appeal most strongly to
the salient and dominating phases and intimations of his own inmost
being.
The philosopher will see it most clearly through philosophy, the
scientist through science, the clerics through dogma, the unlettered
through faith in authority, and the poet through poetry.
To me, the entire, thrilling, magnificent, mind-ravishing story of
God's redemption through Jesus Christ is told sublimely and com-
pletely in these three words — Beauty for Ashes.
To me they are the entire and supreme glory and harmony of the
ages; but let me touch a more homely strain.
During the Chicago World's Fair I had the honor of attending
one of Mrs. May Wright Sewal's famous receptions. On being pre-
sented to the hostess, and by the hostess to her husband, Mr. Sewal
repeated my name once or twice, and then asked: " Is it the Rev.
Mr. Thorne, and were you ever settled in Wilmington, Del. ? " I
replied that I was once a Eeverend in my pre-existent state, and that
as a matter of fact I was a settled minister in Wilmington, Del., in
the years 1871, '72. Mr. Sewal replied: " Then you are the gentle-
man I mean," and " don't you remember me? " was his next ques-
tion. The crowds were pressing around us, but I looked mine host
in the face and said: " No, I do not remember you." " And don't
you remember Mr. Sewal? " he said. Then I looked away from him
across the quarter of a century that had intervened, and in a moment
I said: " Why, yes; I remember Mr. and Mrs. Sewal very well. They
lived on the same street with me; but Gen. Sewal was then as old a
man as I am now, and you cannot be that man." As he hesitated a
moment, I continued: "And I remember two or three little light-
haired tots — ^mere children — of Mr. and Mrs. Sewal's, but — "
"^ Well," answered mine host, " I am one of those little tots, and what
is more, Mr. Thorne, I can clearly remember a sermon you preached
one Sunday from the text, * Beauty for Ashes,' and I could repeat to
you some of the expressions in that sermon." By this time our remi-
niscences were blocking the crowd, and upon my remarking to Mrs.
Sewal that it was evident she had well trained her husband during
these years, and getting from her the prompt reply: " Thanks to the
good start he received under Mr. Thorne," we took our social beauty
for the ashes of tlie past, and I have never seen any of the parties
since.
4 THB GLOBE,
Still later I learned from some old people in Jacksonville, III, that
they, also, distinctly remembered the same text and the same sermon
preached to them in the winter of 1870-71.
It was my purpose to search for that sermon among my old papers,
and to print it word for word as I preached it more than a quarter of
a century ago. But those old papers are numerous and unsorted;
hence I concluded to preach this new sermon with only the text of
the old one clearly in my mind.
Within a twelvemonth I was speaking to a Catholic priest of this
incident, and he very promptly asked: " But are those words in the
scriptures, Mr. Thome?" "Certainly, Father," I replied, and
added: " I thought all you priests were very familiar with the scrip-
tures," and of course my estimate of the scriptural learning of the
priest fell several degrees. In this hasty judgment, however, I was
wrong, as Protestants are apt to be wrong ninety-nine times in a
hundred whenever they rush at conclusions unfavorable to a priest.
I was right, and the priest was right also.
In the so-called King James version of the scriptures, the line in
Isaiah reads as I have it here. In the old Cruden's Concordance of
the Scriptures the same form may be found, but in the new Protest-
ant Revised Edition of the Scriptures, published ten years ago, the
expression reads: "A garland for ashes," and in the Catholic Mon-
treal-English version of 1853, translated from " The Latin Vulgate,"
the expression reads: " A crown for ashes."
I have not looked at my Hebrew Bible for many years, and wer;^ 1
to search among the Greek and Hebrew roots for the more literal
meaning, and express my judgment on those grounds, my jud^r-
ment might not weigh much on a question of this kind, hence I let
the matter pass, admitting that, probably, the later English versions.
Catholic and Protestant, may give the more literal translation. But
what does one translator in a thousand know of poetry? And tlie
language here is perfectly and beautifully poetic.
Moreover, the prophet is speaking in general terms — not of one
person who, in return for hie sorrow, is to receive a crown, or a gar-
land of joy — but of many such; of " them," and of an eternal world-
wide universal principle of God's goodness, whereby He giveth mill-
ions of crowns and garlands for the universal cryings and ashes of
sorrow and death.
And as Isaiah was a master in literature as well as an inspired
prophet of God, he would not only write grammatically, but in per-
"BEAUTY FOR ASHES." 5
feet accord with the spirit and scope of his own God-inspired
thought.
To my mind, it is weak and almost silly to say of the Eternal in
this connection: He giveth them a garland or a crown for ashes.
The prophet has in mind the afflicted, the down-trodden, the sor-
rowful, the dejected, the burden-bearing, the dying, the hopeless,
the anxious-eyed, the trembling, the tottering, the falling and the
fallen all over the world and the ages — whose hopes are dead,
whose garlands fled, by all the world deserted — the millions in
all times and nations who have been slain for liberty, for truth,
for righteousness, for love, for glory, the millions whose agonizing
son'ow, and tears, and groans, and sighs as of broken and shat-
tered hearts have sought the hard-blue sides all unavailing — the
millions whose ashes of despair have blinded the eyes of faith, hope,
and mayhap of charity, and this divine messenger in the Spirit of
the Lord God — the eternal Father — proclaims aloud to all of these
in all ages and times, that there is a power, a God in Heaven, and in
all the affairs of men, who weighs the burdens, counts the tears, hears
the moans, feels the sorrows, and out of the very ashes of death and
darkness evolves new hope, new faith, new life, new glory — in a
word — giveth " Beauty for Ashes," and that to this law of eternal
ministry He holds all worlds, all forces, all stars, suns, flowers, har-
monies, as in the hollow of His benignant hand, and giveth " Beauty
for Ashes " as lavishly as He gives light for darkness in every corner
where the sun doth shine.
A garland or a crown is too small for this thought. No garland,
no crown could span the brow of universal sorrow and death. It is
an ever-springing perennial beauty, in the abstract and in the con-
crete, for every broken heart, that the poet-prophet has in mind.
For he speaketh still, and his words are fresh every morning and new
every evening, and wait at the crumbling grave-stones of all our
buried loves and expectations, sapng as of old: " He giveth Beauty
for Ashes," only open thine eyes and bare thy brow to the rainbow
blessings of His eternal love.
So pregnant, so blessed, so world-wide and soul-deep are these
words of the prophet to my late waiting eyes.
In truth, this is not alone a spiritual fact or a spiritual dream.
Scripture and science are one in the thought that primal existence
was chaotic, nebulous, void, and that darkness covered the abysses
above and beneath — an empty void, or the fine crushed ashes of mill-
0 THE GLOBE.
ions of pre-existing worlds and ages now and long since floating in
vacuity, an unseen nonentity of passionless, lifeless, broken atoms,
and worlds and ages gone to thinnest air.
Say it took six days: say it took millions of centuries! Who cares?
But what have we in the panorama of the heavens and the earth to-
day?
Surely the spirit of the Eternal moved upon and within the seeth-
ing darkness, and out of the nebulous ashes of our unshaped uni-
verse what Beauty hath not the Eternal given to our hearts and eyes?
1 am not now talking of poetry, but of worlds, of suns, of stars, of
endless system of suns and stars and worlds, whose infinite motions
in space and time are soft, silent and beautiful as an angeFs whis-
pered song.
On our own little planet, what have we but the same testimony
from all the ages? — from dewy leaf and primrose cup He pours eter-
nal wine.
The mightiest and highest mountains ground to powdered ashes
are still clothed with beauty at their feet, and through all their
crevices and valleys. Out of the ashes of their cleft rocks, among
the highest peaks, where the feet of man may never tread, the dear
ferns and mosses grow. Our loveliest and best adorned cemeteries
of the dead are still grass grown, and the varied hues of our grasses
have all the colors, all the shadings of all the flora of the world; and
what with their hewn and sculptured monuments and their rich
adornment of flowers, our modern graveyards, out of God's own love,
springing in the human breast, have become gardens of dreamland,
where roses and violets almost cover the dead with forgetfulness,
and force us to believe in higher transformations of spiritual beauty
in the immortal homes of the human soul.
What are all our present ages of hope and liberty but God's own
reincarnation and resurrection — of the battling and broken heroisms
of past ages of despair?
Every part of the wide world has its own chosen era of spring-
time, when new sunbeams kiss the coldest corners of creation and
bring forth its maiden blushes in myriads of flowers. Over hun-
dreds of miles of burnt-black prairie, rough and repulsive with the
charred ashes of long, fast-flying sheets of flame, I have seen the first
greenness of April and May followed by radiant, far-reaching areas
of infinitely varied and namelessly beautiful prairie flowers. In
truth, the whole wide world is an ever living testimony alike to the
''BEAUTY FOR ASHES." 7
truth of the prophet's words and to the eternal benevolence of
God.
Even the sufferings of the unfortunate, the shiftless and the
needy in our coldest and darkest winter hours are speedily met by
some human benevolence, thus perpetuating the eternal law of
Beauty for Ashes, wherever the sweeten: thoughts of God have
found their winning way.
In fact, everywhere — the flowers beneath our feet, the stars and
the sunshine above our heads, the lessons of past history, echoes of
forgotten ages, the glimmer of eternal dawn and the glow of cease-
less sunsets, the songs of birds, the anthems of human music, the
quenchless but kindly protests of unceasing hum&n love, the gifts
of charity, the forgiveness of wrongs, the healings of the wars of the
nations, the birth of genius and the clusterings of loyalty, of ad-
miration, of adoration around the brow of greatness, and the carved
monuments of human gratitude, the instincts of motherhood and
fatherhood that outlive all ingratitude; all, all proclaim this under-
lying love of the universe, and prove to all but the shameless minions
of Ingersoll atheism, that the Eternal giveth " Beauty for Ashes "
wherever a human heart is willing, or any burnt and haxdened spot
of the world can possibly respond.
If the skeptic, the pessimist replies: "And He giveth ashes for
beauty as well," murders millions in shipwreck, crushes other mill-
ions to death in avalanches of volcanic flames, dooms whole cities to
destruction by cyclones, devastates vast areas of the world by pesti-
lence and infectious disease, I ask, how little of all this is traceable
directly to God's Providence, and how much of it to man's own
degraded and ambitious will; and even when the bolt of destruction
is direct from heaven, liow few of us are smitten compared with the
vast millions who deserve to be smitten, and how quickly the recuper-
ating forces of Nature and of mankind, working with an overruling
Providence, build the waste places and heal the broken hearts that
remain.
The theme is endless and full of beauty. I could quote chapter
after chapter in the prophet Isaiah alone — then fly to the gospels,
the epistles, the Apocalypse — yea, to all the prophets, poets and mas-
ter singers of the world, and prove to you that the divine in us, the
beautiful ministry above us, are all in touch with the cheerful view
of Nature and Providence, so sweetly sung in the three simple words
of our text — " Beauty for Ashes " — until all the eternal springs of
8 THE GLOBE.
love are hopeless and dry; and, surely, like a good host, I have kept
the best wine for the last.
What are all the thoughts I have mentioned — all the testimony of
all the ages and the worlds touching the working of this divine
law in Nature and in ordinary human affairs — compared with the
thought, the fact of its supreme and perpetual working in the super-
natural realms for the redemption, evolution and glorification of
the moral and spiritual soul and life of man?
Whatever we may think of the Eden story, of the fall, of sin in
the abstract, or as taught in the dogma and philosophy of Christen-
dom, every intelligent and honest-minded man knows only too well
that there is somewhere a sad rift in the lute of time. Whoever
Adam was and however he came into being, by Darwinian methods
or by pure creation, the story of the first man is simply the story of
every man since born into the world — the sweet Edens of child-
hood, the richer and rarer Edens of pure and exalted conscious man-
hood, not to speak of the ordinary lives of ordinary mankind — how
surely and how constantly are they invaded by the tempter, dark-
ened and shadow-covered, and filled with despair by the yieldings
of the tempted, until the experience of every man forces him to
hide from the face of God and to seek in a thousand ways to ease his
troubled conscience, to find some sort of union with the broken
eternal harmony between God and his own human soul.
And whatever men may think of the dogmas of the Church con-
cerning the one and only divine method of healing the broken heart
of the world, of restoring its peace, of recreating and inspiring the
human will toward unity with the divine, of sanctifying the human
»oul through the special and supernatural gift of grace by faith in
His incarnate Son, as expounded and offered in the Sacraments of
the Church, the simple facts of all the nations as recorded through
all the ages of history must convince the reason of the intelligent
that wave after wave of evil, passion, greed, lust, ambition, injustice,
and million-fold wrongs — even judged by such standards as the best
men of the race have set up as standards of the true and the good —
has swept nation after nation and people after people to utter de-
atruction, so that the only view of the record that bears the sem-
blance of reason is that some overruling Providence has, in sheer
justice, let loose the flames of eternal vengeance until from the Nile
to the Ganges, from the plains of the Himalayas to the Alps, to the
Tiber, to the Rhine, yea, from the Delaware to the Mississippi and
' ' BE A UTY FOR ASHES, ' ' 9
across our new plains to the Golden Gate and the peaceful sea, they
have devoured effete and wasted nations of men, leaving only or
mainly heaps of ashes and the long, low wailings of countless mill-
ions of dead.
Either the nations have been too sinful to be allowed to live, or
the soul of the eternal Destroyer of nations is unjust to the core.
Scholarly saints like Colonel Eobert G. Ingersoll take the latter
view of the case, and curse God as long as their cursing pays.
The more intelligent and more truthful of the human race have
always felt that the nations got only their deserts, and that the eter-
nal heart of Providence was not only just, but kind.
Again, whatever conclusion men may reach concerning the causes
or the justice at the heart of the destructions of the nations, they
must admit that human reason has never yet found a preventive or
a cure, and the deeper they reason, the more clearly will they be con-
vinced with Plato and other deeper thinkers among the ancients
that only an incarnate God, entering our human nature, so inspiring
it at the very fountains of our being — inspiring our very flesh, and
mind, and heart, and will toward a new ideal of life, could or can
possibly avert from future ages and nations the calamities that
have befallen the ages and nations of the past.
Now it is this highest and last conceivable ideal beauty of eternity
that I am to preach in this sermon — the Rose of Sharon — the Star of
Bethlehem — the Bright and Morning star — the Sun of Righteous-
ness— the idealized, the actual, highest possible human incarnation
of God's eternal love — as God is Love.
You all know of Jesus of Nazareth — the Christ, the Son of the liv-
ing God — God with us. I will not press the dogma that there is no
other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be
saved. I do not forget that, to say " you must " to a human being,
is to make him feel, if not to say, " I won't." I will not trespass on
the realm of dogma, I am simply pointing a moral to this and to that
acknowledged incident of history. I can prove — have proven in
No. 8 of this Review — that Jesus of Nazareth met and still meets all
conceivable ideals and demands of human reason concerning a pos-
sible incarnation of God; and if this was what we needed — if all
highest as well as lowest methods of mere human ministry failed
the nations of old, and are sure to fail us as well — surely it is worth
the while of every intelligent human soul to study well the person of
Jesus, and if he is, as tens of thousands of pure, and holy, and gifted.
10 THE GLOBE.
and wise, and exalted human souls have seen, professed and believed
— the Christ, the unrivaled and anointed of heaven — incarnate
expressly and especially for our redemption — the healer of all an-
cient hurts, the ideal dream of manhood for the future, the Saviour,
lover, leader, inspirer of all that is conceivably great, and tender,
and loving, and lovable in all the future ages of the world, surely we
have in him, the last and greatest fulfillment of the old and beautiful
poem of the prophet — that God giveth Beauty for Ashes in all the
realms of his universal and eternal reign.
For as man in his ordinary intellectual life is master of and su-
perior to all natural objects and things, so man in his moral life —
yea, supremely in his spiritual life — guided by eternal love, is su-
perior to every other form or conception of human life, and as Jesus
stood and stands as the ideal, incarnate, eternal love in human fonn.
He is so inconceivably the most beautiful object in the universe that
it were a dream of barbarous and blackened darkness of the human
soul to do less than love Him with all the heart, and mind, and will.
But this is only looking at Jesus as an ideal personal being, in
contrast with all the wrecks, as with all the heroes of past human
history. They are gone to ashes. He remaineth the eternal Son of
God's eternal love, ever with us — the same yesterday, to-day and for-
ever. But it is not alone in His person and life, it is supremely in
His ministry to and for the human race that Jesus becomes the ideal
realization of the poet-prophet's words.
Nineteen hundred years ago His last agonized cry went up to
God apparently unanswered: " My God, my God! Why hast Thou
forsaken me? " That is the bitterest cry that ever rent the ears of
the world, and those who understand it best — those who, having
striven for His own ideal of love, have felt the same or a similar
agony, are the last to wonder why the heavens closed in darkness
roimd the world that hour, a darkness such as had never been known
before.
The richest pearl of all the universe had been flung away. The
rarest flower that ever grew in the shape of a chaste and stainless
human soul had been plucked, and spit upon, and spurned. The
hoHest hfe of eternal loyalty to the dreams of divine love had been
scorned as an upstart, pestilent fellow — a disturber of the blasphe-
mous and egotistic piety of His own day.
For an hour — for a day — the new Edens of human hopes that
centred around Him grew darker than the primal Eden of old— dust
* ' BE A XJTY FOR ASHES. " 11
to dust, ashes to ashes — even the bleeding heart of God's love now all
gone to dust and ashes, to agony and despair.
Surely there will be no sunrise on the morrow. Surely no new
morning of hope will ever bless the world. " His blood be upon us
and upon our children," was the blasphemous cry of the saints of
His day. So little did they understand the deathless form of all
philosophy — that " God is Love, and whoso dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God and God in him." In truth, do we understand it in these
late days? Dear friends, the morning cometh, and no blackest or
widest cloud can ever wholly envelop the world.
I suppose it was comparatively easy for the Almighty to make a
natural man, whatever processes He employed. Plainly, it was a far
more difficult work to make a God-man, and even that was trivial
compared with the work of making the human race into the likeness
of this God-man. Yet, this is the process of Beauty for Ashes —
going on in all our hearts and in all nations to-day.
Nineteen hundred years ago it was rocked in the cradle of Beth-
lehem, nailed to the cross on Calvary, revived on the day of Pente-
cost, persecuted to death in the catacombs, then heralded by kings,
built into no end of creeds, churches, temples, souls of martyrs,
saints; and to-day the altars of Christ's eternal love are flower
crowned, crowded with loving hearts, and the shrines of His beauty
of soul are the rainbows, dawns, sun splendors, adorations, anthems
of a loving world, and measureless are the heavens of fadeless beauty
of love and life that are springing from the ashes of Christ's love and
despair.
All the hillsides of the world are dotted with temples devoted to
His worship. All the crowded cities of modern civilization are
safe-guarded and blessed and beautified alike by the aspiring pin-
nacles of His churches and the blessed altars and sanctuaries
wherein His presence dwells.
Tens of millions of human hearts wherein dwelt, by nature, the
ashes of lust, of doubt, and despair, have found through Him the
rest, the hope, the beauty of faith and eternal love springing up
within them and growing stronger and more beautiful through all
their human lives.
The nations that sat in darkness have seen a great light; eyes that
were blinded by sin and shame have seen the heavens opened, and a
new world — a new universe of enchanting beauty, ruled by the
deeper enchantment of perfect wisdom and perfect love.
12 THE GLOBE.
As gold amoDg metals, as the diamond among precious stones, as
the sun among all visible heavenly worlds, as the sinless face of per-
fect love among the jaded and debauched faces of a world of lust, so
is the beautiful face, the stainless soul of this star of eternal hope
among the wrecked hearts and nations of mankind. In truth, it is
(lod's own fadeless and stainless beauty of incarnate love for all the
ashes of ruined human history.
The grand and massive architecture of ancient Egypt was a won-
drous victory over the sand and ashes of the valley of the Nile.
The famed gardens and palaces of ancient Babylon must have
seemed like deathless Edens of perpetual beauty in place of the
rugged slopes of crumbling hillsides tliat first met the eyes of the
founders of the old Persian civilization. The temples of Greece —
more beautiful than any buildings before or since erected on the face
of the world — and her splendid sculpture, so life-like that to this
hour all our modern work seems tame and artificial beside it. The
great and new-arched and pillared glories of ancient Kome — what
masteries of beauty were in all these over the primal and chaotic
nebulae of existence out of which the ancients had to build and live.
And the once venerable and lovely temple of Jerusalem, in prepar-
ation for which David hoarded, and for the building of wliich
Solomon strained every thought and nerve: what a transformation
from the ashes of the earlier Hebrew bondage, the desert wander-
ings and the days of their moving tabernacle of beautiful devotion;
but most of all this has long since crumbled into ashes again.
In truth, so swift are the winged winds of heaven that already
many of the earlier temples of Christendom, and these the most
beautiful ever reared by mortal hand, have fallen to decay. So
transient are all the merely physical works of mankind, while the
higher beauties of the mind, of the heart, of love and of martyrdom
for love's sake — as supremely manifested by Jesus of Nazareth —
are as fadeless and immortal as the very being of God. In truth,
such love is the heart and care of God's own being.
Would that I could make men understand this — that Christ — that
Christianity — is not slavery to irrational creeds, but loyalty to the
sweetest and loveliest soul that ever was born or that ever can be
bom into this world, and that once the human heart yields itself to
this ideal holy of holies of all the sacrednesses of the universe, every
dogma of the Church becomes more rational and more believable
than any simplest proposition ever formed by mortal man.
' ' BE A UTY FOR ASHES. ' ' 13
I doubt not there are many touches of ancient Egyptian wisdom
embodied in the earlier books of the Hebrew Scriptures usually at-
tributed to Moses. God works by means, and the evolution of He-
brew life in Egypt was plainly that, through Moses, the favored son
of the race, whatever was good and worth perpetuating in the old
Egyptian civilization should be given, through him, with a divine
touch of a new divine unity and a higher moral law to the Hebrew
race, and through them to the succeeding ages of mankind. And
the modern Christian — Catholic or what not — who turns up his
nose at the literary, moral or other accomplishments of the ancient
nations may be an excellent bigot, but he is utterly unfit to be the
interpreter of God or human history for the benefit of modern ages.
Precisely the same is true of the modem scientist — old mound
digger, or what not — who has buried his nose so long in the mines
of ancient cities, the crumblings of ancient mountains, the fly-specks
of ancient parchments, that he is incapable of seeing the richer and
rarer eternal splendors of thought that have come into the world
through the love, and life, and death of Jesus, the eternal Son of
God.
I admire the dramas of Sophocles in their way as profoundly as I
admire the dramas of Shakespeare, and I look upon each as a mani-
festation of Beauty for Ashes in his own sphere, but Dante sings a
higher theme than any ancient ever knew, and touches higher realms
of poetic beauty than any poet has ever touched who was not in-
spired by the absorbing, all-conquering and all-beautiful thought of
redeeming love. But Dante is only a faint re-echo of Isaiah, of St.
Paul, of John in the Apocalypse, and these again are only faint
echoes of the world-mastering soul who gave His precious life for
His love's sake, and by his death and resurrection crowned the end-
less eternities with such radiant " Beauty for Ashes " that only the
true, and the brave, and the humble, and the meek, and the lowly of
heart are able to look upon His eternal splendor and to dream of
dawns and mid-days, of cloudless inefl^able beauties of being, of
thought, of love, and of the eternal dwellings of love in the stainless
heavens of eternity.
So through Christ and His Church — as I understand it all — is
this eternal law of loving, divine benevolence going on in all parts of
the world to-day, and so destined to go on until every available atom
of the universe, every available thought, despair, effort, hope, and
hopelessness of man shall be transformed into the beauty of faith.
14 THE OLOBE.
hope and charity — the eternal triplets of redemption — evolved,
created anew, made lovable and loving by the grace of the older
Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,
the hidden, mystic glory of all eternity.
William Henry Thorne.
IN SAN ONOFRIO.
Within the little church upon the slope
Of Rome's Janiculum dead Tasso lies;
Above his grave svi^eet prayers and incense rise;
And from the painted window Christ, our hope,
Imparts a light with which no shadows cope.
The sun-suffused arches glow like skies;
O Tasso! is not this thy paradise.
Or is thy heaven a realm of wider scope?
In prayerful hush the saints and angels dream;
While Mary and the reading Child are still;
Celestial peace and holiness are there:
Oh, it were well to iBnd across death's stream,
After a life beset with .direst ill,
This heavenly calm on-stealing unaware!
Abigail Tayloe.
A NEW LITERARY GENIUS.
The Flower That Grew in the Sand, and Other Stories.
By Mrs. Ella Higginson. The Calvert Company: Seattle,
Wash.
This book is one of the pleasantest visitors that has ever honored
the Globe office. It is the old story. Just as the world is sick of
such dullards as Lowell, and Holmes, and Howells, and James, not
to speak of whole nameless gangs of such writers as Steadman and
Fawcet, and is dreaming that genius has fled to the woods or the
stars, here comes a woman all the way from Seattle, breathing the
air of the Western mountains and seas, bringing us a " flower that
grew in the sand," and the soul of it, the brightness of it, the daz-
A NEW LITERARY GENIUS. 15
zling natural beauty of it, from cover to cover, are all so captivating
that we of the East would weave laurel wreaths for her — threaded
^-ith violets, dashed with true English primroses, threaded with
jessamine and little tufts of heliotrope, and all the latest of our
choicest roses — giving her beauty for beauty and love for love.
And the Seattle printers and publishers of the book are to be
congratulated. The illustrations are nothing to speak of, but the
printing and binding and the total make-up of the work are equal to
the best of the famous Cambridge Press, which has done such excel-
lent work these many years for certain Boston publishers.
The typical sand flower is the cactus, hence a very dainty illustra-
tion of this is stamped in good green and red on the first cover — not
gaudy and foolish, as they do so many things in the West, but mod-
est, neat, characteristic and beautiful. And the book is full of flow-
ers— larkspur, old moss roses, candytuff, asters, sweet peas, etc.,
the old favorites of the village gardens — ^but the flowers that grow in
the sand and those that bloom in the spring — old-fashioned and new-
fashioned — are nothing compared with the flowers of creative genius,
of clearly outlined character, of moral worth and homely heroism,
that adorn the pages of Mrs. Higginson's stories.
These stories have appeared in certain magazines and newspapers,
but it is with modern stories and choice poems and other literary
work appearing in our magazines — much as Carlyle once said of his
inimitable " Sartor Resartus " — ^that it had fallen asleep in Fraser's
Magazine. Fraser's was the best English magazine in its day,
and our magazines seem, at times, to keep new writers of genius
from starvation and nameless hells of despair, but a poem, a story, or
any good literary work must get itself into a book before the world
will properly appreciate it, and I am very glad that Mrs. Higginson's
stories have found this form. They are well worthy of their pres-
ent setting, and they ought to be read by admiring millions.
In clippings of notices that accompany the book, the Chicago
Journal, the Northwest Magazine, the Chicago Graphic and other
papers, plainly ignorant of all literary discrimination, compare Mrs.
Higginson's work with Joaquin Miller's, intending to compliment
Mrs. Higginson by such comparisons.
Such critics not only make me tired, they make me swear — in
whispers, of course. The truth is, that Joaquin Miller was always a
posing slouch: simply this and nothing more. He never wrote a
perfect sentence or a perfect stanza of poetry in all his days. He is
16 THE GLOBE,
simply the Walt Whitman-cowboy literateur of the Western back-
woods— the booted, open-throated, open-mouthed slouch of Amer-
ican literature. But Mrs. Higginson writes only perfect sentences.
I am now speaking of her work as literary matter. Either by some
hereditary gift of ancient genius, or by suffering and writing and
thinking and working till the sands of the Western seas have filtered
the flowing thoughts of her soul to pure diamonds, she has mastered
the art of writing.
Every fellow can write in our day — thanks to the clap-trap of our
public schools — still there is not one good writer in a million, and
Mrs. Higginson is one of these.
In her choice of home-like characters of the Far Western type,
and in her clear-cut delineation of such characters, Mrs. Higginson
more nearly resembles Bret Harte than any other American writer,
and Bret Harte was, and still remains, the cleverest literary genius
this country has produced since its neglect of genius murdered
Edgar Allen Poe.
But Mrs. Higginson is not another Bret Harte. Her writings in-
dicate that she is a Christian, that she has imbibed from the eternal
fountains of truth a clear perception of those moral heroisms known
only to men and women who are in the secret of Christ's passionate
and redemptive love.
This Bret Harte never knew, and the entire theme of it was, and
remains, a mockery in the life of such harlequins as Joaquin Miller
and Walt Wliitman. As for Mr. Howells, I understand that he
never read the scriptures till he was a grown man. God pity these
poor, half-starved literary souls who presume to teach in the nine-
teenth Christian century, and still have never learned or tried to live
the first principles of Christian life.
In truth, it is on account of what I will call the moral sublimity,
found somewhere or other in all Mrs. Higginson's stories, that I have
been moved to say of her work the best word I am able to say.
In every story the true hero or heroine, through some heroic min-
istry of self-sacrifice, conquers all the devils in sight and becomes a
sane human being.
It is true that this very element in her work gives it a kind of
sameness or monotony, but the stories were written at different
times for different periodicals, and the sameness referred to is not
noticeable unless one reads them all — as I read them — consecutively.
I do not know either the age or the circumstances of Mrs. Higgin-
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 17
son, but her pen is touched with a live coal from off the altar of
human genius, and I hope she will give us some extended life story —
like these short sketches — without any padding, and make herself as
famous as her great gifts deserve.
William Henry Thorne.
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION?
It is assumed by a number of popular writers that certain countries
are Christian countries, and that our own dear land caps the sublime
height of all by its identification with Christian principles. Puz-
zling my brain over the problem involved in the question: Are there
any countries properly denominated Christian? I thought mayhap
the Globe Eeview might have a clear solution of the enigma right
at hand for weak mortals like myself who cannot arrive at a definite
conclusion. Is it Christian, or a degenerate from the old-time
Christendom? Some one has remarked that the degeneration of a
nation manifests itself step by step in the corruption of its lan-
guage, but to comprehend the remark we must understand what de-
generation is, and what corruption of a language is. We resort to
Webster as our present acknowledged standard of definitions for in-
formation, and find the word " degeneration " traced to the Latin
" degener," " that departs from its race or kind — to be or grow
worse than one's kind." To illustrate its use he presents a phrase,
" Our degeneration and apostasy," from Bates, and another, " To re-
cover mankind out of their universal corruption and degeneracy,"
from Clarke. We cannot mistake, these both refer to spiritual loss;
the one to the departure of our first parents from the original state
in which the nature of the race was constituted; the other, to some
departure from the state of spiritual enlightenment in Christ, the
principle of degeneration and corruption being in the citadel of
thought itself. The one corruption a loss of the natural law after-
wards recorded on stone by Moses; the other, a rejection of the
Beatitudes recorded in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, as the ideal
law of individual perfection and social well-being in community life.
Man utters his true word by interior speech called forth by ex-
ternal objects through the five senses. The soul makes acquaintance
with itself and becomes confusedly conscious of an absolute law of
VOL. VII. — 2.
18 THE GLOBE.
right and wrong imprinted in its creation as evidence of the Creator's
will, by this method alone. If, then, this interior conscience be per-
verted, the soul has departed from the natural condition of its race
or kind and become degenerate; if, from the law of Blessedness re-
vealed to man and held by faith, it degenerates from Christianity, no
longer possessing as an ideal what Christ taught his apostles, and
through them the whole world. Now, even in spite of an intention
which a man may have to deceive, the interior action of the soul in
speech will inevitably manifest externally the reality within through
his language and conduct. How, then, can a country whose govern-
ment is for the people, by the people, be denominated by any just dis-
tinction a Christian country, when the ruling majorities are not even
united on the meaning of what a Christian is? A learned author in
the field of metaphysics has said it is impossible to express with
clearness and precision certain ideas having close connection with
Christian philosophy and theology in the English of the present day.
The ideas, originally linked with certain words, it seems, have by de-
grees been obliterated from the minds of the English people at large
since their fall from the center of enlightenment, and the words ex-
pressive of those ideas have changed their significance or have be-
come obsolete. A solution of the old saying, " He will never set the
river on fire," which appeared recently in the columns of St,
Nicholas, illustrates how words may degenerate into an absurdity
from the original ideas represented. In England, previous to the in-
vention of the miller's sieve, each family made use of what was called
a tcmse, for the purpose of sifting their flower. It was fixed in the
top of the flour barrel and turned round and round, but if turned too
rapidly there was danger of setting the temse afire. A lazy boy
would never work hard endugh for this, and to designate that one
was lazy, " He will never set the temse afire " passed into a proverb.
The miller's sieve was invented, and the temse discarded, while the
proverb remained to those who knew no temse, but the River
Thames, which is pronounced precisely the same as the name of the
old culinary utensil. Thus, to set the Thames afire was identified
with setting any other river afire.
The author above alluded to wrote some years since thus: " It is
the abuse of one word that does the greatest mischief in the depart-
ment of physics. This word is force. Its frequent misapplication
tends to confound and falsify the whole doctrine of physical causa-
tion." Reviewing certain passages drawn from Grove's " Correlation
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION? 19
of Physical Forces," he points out the ambiguity which results from
such misapplication, and says: " The words cause, power, force, and
others of the same kind have, indeed, been maintained, as they could
not easily be dispensed with; but they receive a new interpretation —
they have become " kinds of motion," and have been identified with
the phenomena; that is, with the effects themselves; thus, " move-
ment " is now everything.
No other word in the English vocabulary has been more abused
than that of " Christian," except it be that of " God," and this was
amusingly manifested — if so serious a matter can ever be amusing —
when a popular Congregationalist minister of this city proposed the
question: " What is a Christian? " and the replies were published in
a local daily, no two of which were identical. Ask a child, " What is
a kingdom? " and he answers like everybody else, " A country sub-
ject to a king." Ask what is a Mahomedan country? The answer
is, evidently, a country subjected to the principles promulgated by
Mahomet. But if you, in like manner, state that a Christian coun-
try is one subjected to the principles promulgated by Jesus Christ,
and aim at precision, you have immediately to start anew and in-
quire: " What are these principles? " and where shall we find the ul-
timate authority whose function it is to declare them? At least,
two confident opposing authorities are in the field — the Roman
Catholic Pope of Rome and Wilf ord Woodruff, President of the Mor-
mon Church. Webster defines " Christendom," " That portion of
the world which is governed under Christian institutions." It is im-
portant to comprehend the exact meaning of the qualifying term.
The dictionary notifies us that Milton speaks of the Arian doctrines
dividing Christendom; but we know from history that thus divided,
one unity was left — the unity of public worship. The sacrifice of
Calvary continued in the Holy Mass was offered alike by Catholic
and Arian. But now the old Christendom has been subjected to so
many subdivisions, public worship changed from its universal char-
acter of sacrifice understood from the beginning of the world by
every people, heathen, Hebrew and Catholic, as significant of reason-
able service, the term Christendom is obsolete under its former
meaning, and sermons to please the auditors, extemporaneous prayer
of an individual, and the music of a trained choir takes the place of
public worship. Again I ask, how can a country be denominated
Christian without it unites publicly in the worship of Christ, the
Man who is the Son of God, eternal, immense, simple, unchangeable.
20 THE GLOBE.
independent, all-sufficient, and incomprehensible to the finite un-
derstanding, in the manner lie chose to institute?
The word " Christian," like that of " force," has been misapplied
to such an extent and received so many new interpretations, that the
thing intended by the term when first used at Antioch has become
obsolete outside of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Natural virtues which may grace even an infidel are assumed to be
the distinctive marks of the Christian, and any one who leads a
characterless, inoffensive life, making himself all things to all men
rather than antagonize another's opinion, though this same inoffen-
sive one should insult his Maker by suicide at last, will be lauded as
a Christian by his friends, and his suicide set down to his credit as
charity. He or she could not become a burden on others. The
distinctively Christian idea of "saint" and of "martyr" is lost
outside the Catholic Church. The saint is no longer, in common
parlance, the one who makes the self-abnegation of Jesus Christ the
pattern of his daily life. The martyr is no longer one who, knowing
revealed truth, voluntarily surrenders his life rather than deny it by
any word or action controlled by his will. A bravado or a fanatic
who throws away his life for a vague, unreasonable opinion, is often
dubbed a martyr nowadays. Such is the corruption of language
which manifests the degeneration of Christendom. Arius substi-
tuted his own private judgment for the infallible authority, still
maintaining that he was a Christian. Mahomet cornipted the
principles of Christ by the substitution of heathen morals. Yet
Christ, according to him, was a great prophet. And now in this
Western republic, Latter Day Saints arise and build flourishing
cities, and are admitted as citizens, the peers of the governing peo-
ple. They believe in Christ, but according to their own interpre-
tation, like all the other so-called Christian sects who deem it a privi-:
lege to rely on the private interpretaion of sacred books. The ^lor-
mon's faith is now published, for the enlightenment of the world at
large, in the " Pictorial Reflex of Salt Lake City and Vicinity." It
is well, if ours is a Christian country, that the public should know
from the Saints themselves how Christian they are. The author
of the " Reflex " tells us the Mormons' faith includes belief in God,
the Eternal Father, in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
God is a perfect being, possessing body, parts and passions. Christ
said he was the express image of His Father's person. God is the
Father of the spirits of mankind. The atonement of Christ was de-
ARE WE A CHRISTIAN NATION f 21
signed to enable fallen humanity to return to the presence of their
Eternal Father. The Church established by Jesus Christ was de-
stroyed, and a general apostasy from the primitive order was the
consequence. God did not acknowledge the man-made systems
that thus sprung up. No man has the right to act as the servant of
God unless he possesses the authority by revelation. It was, there-
fore, necessary that God should delegate some one in this age to act
as His representative, so that the same order as that established by
Jesus Christ could be again restored in these latter times. Joseph
Smith was the one selected, and through the administration of an
angel, the Holy Priesthood was again restored to the earth with all
its orders and graces, as enjoyed in ancient times. The Bible is the
record of God's dealing with mankind in the Eastern world, and the
Book of Mormon, as revealed to Joseph Smith, is also a record of His
dealings with the ancient people who dwelt on the American Con-
tinent, and these sacred books mean what they say and must be un-
derstood similarly to all other histories. The sphere of woman is as
noble as that of man, and she is entitled to all the rights she can en-
joy. All capable persons should marry, and any man who shirks
the obligation of matrimony is a dangerous element in society.
Marriage is a sacred compact, and should be made for time and all
eternity, and must be performed in buildings erected for that pur-
pose. Marriage, under well-defined regulations, is necessary to
the proper development of the sexes, mentally and physically, and
unrestricted or unauthorized relations between the sexes are il-
legitimate and an abomination in the sight of God. ' So much for
Mormon Christianity. One instructed in the first principles of
natural and revealed religion could never be deceived by such ab-
surdity, but how many are uninstructed who are seeking in some
sort of a way a positive teacher — and the Mormon prophet is posi-
tive. A man dying with consumption read Catholic books that I
loaned him, and was enamored, but finally, with marked reluctance,
confided to me that he had once been duped, and knew not how to
trust anyt^ng again. He was naturally a thinker, but had picked
up his knowledge here and there while a butler in a London resi-
dence. Listening to Mormon missionaries he became enthusiastic,
disposed of all he had, and came to Salt Lake City. A few months
served to cure him of his enthusiasm, and he forsook the saints and
hired out as a day laborer on farms in the W^st, where his employers
lorded it over their servants as he had never known amongst the
TUB GLOBE.
aristocracy of England. Thus he had lost confidence in the rational
conclusions of his own intellect, and was too inert to grapple with
the proof Catholic Christianity brings.
Elizabeth A. Adams.
Rockford, III
OUR ARBITRATION FIASCO.
I AM writing this article quite as much to ridicule certain brain-
less enthusiasms of the American people as to expose what seems to
me the utter futility of the treaty of arbitration, concerning which
so much newspaper and other idiocy has been already expended,
and as the comment of the Public Ledger of Philadelphia seems to
me stupider, more sophomoric and bombastic than any other news-
paper utterance on the subject, I have chosen its paragraph as the
text of this brief article.
People who read the last Globe Keview will remember that the
Public Ledger of Philadelphia is one of the various pious relics of
the late St. George W. Childs, etc., etc.
Here is what the Public Ledger had to say of our now famous
arbitration treaty:
" Regarded from the viewpoints of Christianity, humanity, civili-
zation, common sense, reason and justice, the signing of the general
arbitration treaty between the United States and Great Britain is
the most important and profoundly interesting international inci-
dent of the century now drawing to its close. It is impossible to
magnify the influence of this convention not only upon the destinies
of the two puissant nations directly concerned, but upon the cause
of peace and international concord and comity throughout the civ-
ilized and, we may hope, the semi-civilized world."
My first comment will be upon the Ledger's paragraph; then upon
other newspaper paragraphs, and through these upon the treaty it-
self.
What impresses a trained newspaper editor immediately is, that
the Ledger paragraph could have been written by any college boy or
girl simply impressed with recent popular clamor, and without ever
having studied the text of the treaty at all, and the probability is
that the writer of said paragraph never had studied the treaty.
OUR ARBITRATION FIASCO. 23
My second comment is, that any one of quite a number of treaties
that this nation has made and broken with the Indians and with the
Chinese during this century was of infinitely more importance than
the treaty in question, and as for the " influence of this convention "
upon " the destinies of the two puissant nations," etc., etc., " from
the viewpoints of Christianity, humanity," etc., etc., that is the
veriest rot that even the Public Ledger of Philadelphia ever perpe-
trated; but when a " great newspaper " has a little-headed dude for
editor-in-chief, what can its utterances on great subjects be but un-
utterably contemptible?
In the first place, I call attention to the pettiness of this treaty,
as expressed in its own terms. The treaty contains fifteen articles,
the subjects of arbitration being divided into three classes — pecu-
niary claims of less than $500,000, pecuniary claims exceeding
$500,000, and territorial claims.
In any case, there is no likelihood that Great Britain and the
United States would go to war over a pecuniary claim less than the
amount first mentioned, and in case of claims exceeding $500,000
the conditions of the treaty are so complex and unreasonable that no
satisfactory solution would likely be reached by the process of arbi-
tration.
On this point the Washington Post has a discriminating para-
graph that the Ledger man should have read before breathing his su-
perb Te Deum. The PosCs paragraph is as follows:
" When it comes to really serious questions, however — questions
of territory and, incidentally, of national prestige, sovereignty, and
honor, the value of the proposed arrangement is not so apparent.
. . . Here, it will be seen, a final verdict is provided for — but
how? By ^an award by a majority of not less than five to one! *
The tribunal is to be composed of six members — three chosen by the
United States and three chosen by Great Britain — and it requires a
majority of five to one to declare a judgment which either party to
the controversy is bound to respect. Does any rational human being
imagine that two Englishmen out of three selected to represent their
country in a case involving its territorial possessions and, therefore,
its national dignity and honor, will ever vote with the opposition?
Does any one suppose a similar absurdity on the part of any two of
our representatives? Of course, the treaty provides that in case of
disagreement there shall be no resort to hostile measures until the
mediation of one or more friendly powers shall have been invited;
but is it not as clear as day that, humanly speaking, the protocol fails
in things of real importance? "
24 THE GLOBE,
There is no need of adding a word to this. The writer had read
the treaty, and wrote from the viewpoints of Christianity, human-
ity, etc., etc.
It is true Article IX. declares that
" Territorial claims include all other claims involving questions of
servitude, rights of navigation and of access; fisheries and all rights
and interests necessary to the control and enjoyment of the territory
claimed by either of the high contracting parties,"
but the difficult conditions noted by the Post apply in such cases.
I seldom agree with anything the New York Sun has to say on
questions relating to England and America, but I agree with it ex-
actly when it asserts that
" There is a growing impression among good Americans who are
not carried away by sentimental impulses, that where this proposed
treaty is not mere humbug it is highly dangerous to vital American
interests, and where it is not positively dangerous, it is mere hum-
bug."
Not to seem one-sided however, I here reproduce a paragraph
from the New York Literary Digest giving the other side of opinion.
It says:
" Two of the three grand old men of European statesmanship,
Gladstone and Crispi, inform the Journal that they find the treaty a
great step in the right direction, * indicating' adds the Sage of
Hawarden, * a sound conviction worthy of Christians.' Justin Mc-
Carthy thinks it is ' the highest point civilization has yet reached.'
Henri Rochefort applauds it as ' doing away with physical force and
accomplishing good work for civilization.' James Bryce, the great
historian and constitutional authority, says: * There can be no more
potent influence for peace and good-will between the two great
kindred nations and no better example to the world.' * It is a blow
struck for humanity,' exclaims the French statesman, M. Clemen-
ceau. All other famous men (including Archbishop Walsh, of Dub-
lin; Visconti Venosta, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Home; Alfred
Austin, England's Poet Laureate; Albert Rollit, President Associ-
ated Chambers of Commerce; John Burns, Sir John Lubbock, and
Rev. Joseph Parker, of London) who communicated their views to
the Journal wrote in the same strain, with not one dissenting view."
Of these, however, one may add that Gladstone is in his second
childhood, and was always an optimist rather than an exact or close
thinker; that Crispi's opinion on the morals of civilization is not
worth the paper it may be written on; that Justin McCarthy is nat-
OUR ARBITRATION FIASCO . 26
urally given to pliraseology rather than to thought; that Rochefort is
a worn-out politician of the worst French type, that James Bryce
and the other gentlemen mentioned are all used to going off half-
cocked on politico-moral problems, and that their opinions one way
or the other do not affect the facts indicated.
It is worth while, moreover, to remind the jubilant hurrah boys
that though the unseemly and unreasonable assertion of what certain
editors choose to call the " Monroe Doctrine," by Mr. Olney was the
characteristic Jonathan Spark that led to all this uproar concerning
a universal treaty, etc., no mention is made in this treaty of the
'^ Monroe Doctrine," and no recognition made of its claims. In ex-
plaining this to a committee of the United States Senate, Mr. Olney
is reported to have said that
"It (the Monroe doctrine) had not been mentioned in the
treaty, for to do so would have been impolitic and dangerous. The
provisions of Article VI relative to the method of procedure in ter-
ritorial claims gave assurance that all the rights of this country in
any dispute would be carefully guarded. That article stipulated
that any award to be final must be made by a vote of not less than
five to one in a court consisting of three American jurists and three
English. It could not be conceived that two Americans would join
the English side of the court on any question, unless they were war-
ranted in so doing by the facts and the presentation of the case be-
fore the court. A five-to-one award guaranteed absolute fairness
and justice, and disarmed all the criticism that had been directed
against the convention."
Now the other and more reasonable view of this five-to-one busi-
ness is the view taken by the Washington Post and the New York
Sun — viz., that it renders the treaty practically useless by reason of
the difficulty of its action where important questions are concerned.
I understand that the New York Times is now on the high road to
new prosperity, by reason of its appeal for a higher order of journal-
ism than that usually given us in New York City, and here is what
the New York Times declared on the subject:
" If every preacher in the land to-morrow should state the true
character of the general arbitration treaty and point the way of duty
to the Senate of the United States, it would be a useful and right-
eous exercise of his functions. That noble agreement appeals not
only to the followers of Christ, but to every religious society and,,
indeed, to all men of humane hearts and just minds."
26 THE GLOBE.
In my opinion, the preachers of the land had better mind their
own business and try to preach on subjects that they are supposed,
at least, to understand.
I have not seen Roosevelt's or Parkhurst's opinion on the treaty,
but they are a pair of wild ducks — say, mud hens — any way, and it
does not matter.
The simple truth is, that so far from this treaty being in any sense
an agreement in recognition of Olney's stupid claims as to the " Mon-
roe Doctrine," so-called, and so far from the treaty giving Americans
any right to presume that the committee appointed to arbitrate on
the Venezuelan claims — out of which all this hullabaloo arose —
will act fairly toward American pretensions in the case, the pre-
sumption is all the other way; but I do not care to go into that till the
final conclusion on the Venezuelan claims is reached. Meanwhile, I
conclude these quotations with a comment from Lord Salisbury, who
" candidly states that while the arbitration treaty will provide an
easy method for the settlement of small differences, it will not re-
move the great risks of war. That is to say, things that are not
worth fighting about will be amicably adjusted, and the others will
be referred to the arbitrament of the sword as heretofore."
In a word, as I stated at the outset, the treaty is complex enough;
but, in reality, a petty affair, utterly unworthy the jubilation already
made over it, and were I a full-fledged Yankee — which, thank God,
I am not — I should advise all patriotic Americans not to suspend
fireworks on the next Fourth of July, because John Bull had hid his
horns for a moment, and had once more played spider to our Amer-
ican fly.
I had intended to treat this subject from a much higher stand-
point than that involved in any of the quotations made, and I should
be unjust to my own sense of duty if I failed to add a word in that
direction.
I hold that wars are waged or averted not wholly by the will of
man or of nations. I hold that all the great wars of past history
were inevitable by reason of the existing immoral conditions of the
nations engaged in them; that a great clearing of the hell-slums of
human pride, lust and wrongdoing had to come in each case, and
that it is only as modern nations — through Christianity — rise higher
in the scale of practical daily morality than they have risen at this
stage of world history, that wars can be averted by any human power
or combination of treaty, guarantee, or what not; and I have no
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 27
doubt, — have had no doubt these last twenty-five years — that the
close of this century will witness one of the most brutal and devas-
tating wars the world has ever known. I predicted this more than
a quarter of a century ago; have again and again asserted the cer-
tainty of it until others have taken up the cry, and my assertions,
first, last, and to-day, are based upon a careful study of the military
and moral phenomena of the nations of the world in this generation,
as compared with said phenomena during and preceding any of the
great war periods in all past ages of the world.
We may shake hands and weep in sympathy, or shout for joy in
view of our supposed escape from the bloody chasm here opened to
our eyes. It stretches black and hideous all the same. We cannot
escape it. Mere mouthing orators on supposed Irish wrongs and
American glories do not understand this problem, but I shall live to
see the truth of this article vindicated and my prophecy fulfilled.
Nations cannot escape the natural results of their actions any
more than individual men and, by this law, the justice of Heaven will
pull many of our babels about our ears inside of the next five years.
William Henry Thorne.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH.
From the reports of the bishops as to the state of religion in the
winter ©f 1564,* we can scarcely be surprised that, to use Mr.
Fronde's words, "in the spring of 1565, party strife within the Eliza-
bethan establishment had already commenced in earnest. . . .
Elizabeth had many times expressed her intention to bring the
Church to order," but it was more easy said than done.
On the one hand, the royal injunctions for uniformity in the use
of the cassock, surplice, priest's cap and wafer-cake drove the more
extreme of the Puritan party into open opposition, and " the most
frequented of the London churches became the scenes of scandal
and riot, or were left without service. . . . The Bishop of Lon-
don! was besieged in his house at St. Paul's by mobs of raging
women, whom he vainly entreated to go away and send their hus-
* See previous article, f Edmund Grindal.
28 THE GLOBE.
bands instead."* On the other, it was transparent " that vast num-
bers of the Catholic clergy were left undisturbed in their benefices,
who scarcely cared to conceal their creed;" while, to complete the
confusion, " on Good Friday (1565) the Queen's Almoner, Guest, the
High Church Bishop of Rochester,! preached a sermon before her in
the Chapel Koyal, in which he again and again defended the Ileal
Presence." It is recorded that, so delighted were some northern
gentlemen present to hear the old doctrine proclaimed once more
before their sovereign, that, forgetting the sacred character of the
place, they burst into vehement applause, shouting loudly: " By God,
that is the truth!"
" In June, 1565, the Council were unanimous that scarcely a
third of the population were to be trusted in matters of religion. "|
The Catholic party had commenced to reassert itself. " In 1560
the recent loss of Calais and the danger of foreign invasion had
united the nation in defence of its independence. Two-thirds of
the Peers were opposed at heart to Cecil's policy, but the menaces of
France had aroused the national patriotism. Spain was perplexed
and neutral, and the Catholics had been for a time paralyzed by the
recent memories of the Marian persecution, while the Protestants
were disheartened; they had gained no wisdom by suffering; the
most sincere among them were as wild and intolerant as those who
had made the reign of Edward a by-word of mismanagement, and
Catholicism recovering, w^as reasserting the superiority which the
* Froude's History of England.
f It is curious to compare this sermon with Guest's letter to Sir
William Cecil nearly seven years before (Strype's annals), in which he
expresses strong I'rotestant opinions. He holds ** that ceremonies mis-
used for idolatry ought to be taken away, cites examples to justify the
disuse of the sign of the cross, holds processions to be superfluous,
thinks that since a surplice is good enough for preaching, it is good
enough for the Commiinion Service, and the use of any other vestment
only leads people to imagine that higher and better things are given
therein than be given by the other services (baptism or preaching);
justifles the disuse of praying for the dead; gives reasons why Com-
munion should be received in the hands, and finally thinks that kneel-
ing or standing at Communion ought to be left to each man's choice!
It seems hardly too much to say that Guest, though undoubtedly a
man of learning and moderation, was more or less a time server, a con-
venient echo of the opinions of Cecil or the sovereign, with the latter
of whom he was an immense favorite, always complying with her views
as to ceremonies, etc., and maintaining the celibate state.
X Fronde.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 29
matured creed of centuries had a right to claim over the half -shaped
theories of revolution."*
Of Elizabeth's practical retreat before the Queen of Scots in No-
vember of the same year, Mr. Froude remarks: "Without a fuller
knowledge of the strength and temper of the English Catholics than
the surviving evidence reveals, her conduct cannot be judged with
entire fairness." The intense love of the masses for the faith which
had for nearly a thousand years consoled and mitigated their hard
lot is indicated by the remark of Mary Stuart to Rokeby, in June,
1566, " that she built her hopes of winning the hearts of the com-
mon people in England by restoring the old religion."!
" In the House of Lords in October, 1566, eleven lay Peers spoke
and voted absolutely against admitting the episcopal position of men
who had been thrust into already occupied sees."J In December,
1566, the Protestant party tried to finally end the ambiguity of the
religious position of Elizabeth by introducing a measure to " make
subscription to the thirty-nine articles a condition for the tenure of
benefices in the Church of England."§
Of these renowned formularies of Anglican Protestantism, Mr.
Froude remarks: " Strained and cracked by three centuries of evasive
ingenuity (they) scarcely embarrass now the feeblest of consciences.
. . . In the first years of Elizabeth they were symbols by
which the orthodox Protestant was distinguished from the con-
cealed Catholic. The liturgy, with purposed ambiguity, could be
used by those who were Papists save in name. The articles affirmed
the falsehood of doctrines declared by the Church to be divine, and
the Catholic who signed them either passed over to the new opinions
or imperilled his soul with perjury;" but although they had been im-
posed by the convocation of 1562, both Queen and Parliament had
refused to sanction them. || The Queen herself now checkmated
the obnoxious measure, and on the 2d of January, 1567, Parliament
was dissolved.
* Froude. f Ibid. % Ibid. § Ibid.
II In 1571 the articles, revised by Parker and Jewell, were again ratified
by convocation, but Parliament compelled the clergy to subscribe only
" such of them as onlj- concei-n the confession of the true Christian
Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments." Even then disputes arose,
as some copies were printed with, some without the first half of the
20th article '* as to the authority of the Church in matters of Faith."
The obnoxious clause was, however, finally carried by the High Church
party in the convocation of 1604.
30 THE GLOBE.
" At this date the prospects of English Catholics were good. The
Queen almost engaged to an Austrian Catholic prince, the recogni-
tion (more or less distant) of the Catholic Mary Stuart as Heiress-
presumptive, the establishment, with the support of the Catholic
Powers, of some moderate form of government by which the Cath-
olic worship would be first tolerated and then creep on to ascen-
dency,"* under the legitimate protection and authority of a powerful
Catholic majority in a new and freely elected House of Commons.
In the summer of 1567 information was made to the Queen
that the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury had sold and divided a
huge quantity of plate and vestry ornaments and had particularly
exasperated her, and although the Primate had endeavored to ex-
plain it away, yet, considering what had happened elsewhere, and
that a Protestant Dean had just replaced the old semi-Catholic
Wotton, t the complaint was probably well founded.
In December of the same year (1567) a letter to Lord Pembroke
says " that in Lancashire a great number of gentlemen and others
of the best sort — reputed to number five hundred — had taken a sol-
emn oath among themselves that they will not come at the Commu-
nion nor receive the Sacrament . . . besides other matters con-
cluded amongst them not certainly known but only to themselves."
In the beginning of 1568, reports to the Queen show that at that
time disguised priests were keeping the faith alive in the northern
counties; amongst others, Vance, ex-Warden of Winchester, Mar-
shall, late Dean of Christchurch, etc.J:
Mr. Froude remarks:
" The new religion as by law established gave no pleasure to the
earnest of any way of thinking. To the ultra-Protestant it was no
better than Romanism; to the Catholic or partial Catholic it was in
* Froude.
t Wotton died in January 1566, at his house in Warwick Lane, aged
72. A number of persons accompanied his funeral from London to
Canterbury. lie was buried at the east end of the Cathedral, near the
tomb of Edward the Black Prince. (Burke.)
X Mr. Froude includes in this list William Allen, ex-fellow of Oriel,
Principal of St. Mary's Hall at Oxford and Canon of York, afterwards
Cardinal; but this is a mistake. Allen was in England from 1562 to 1565,
but never after the latter date. In 1567 he made a pilgrimage to Rome,
and in 1568 he was engaged in founding his English college at Douay
on the lines of old Catholic Oxford. Cardinal Allen was a member of
an ancient Lancashire family.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 31
schism from the communion of Christendom, while the great middle
party, the common sense of the country . . . were uneasy and
dissatisfied. They could see no defined principle in the new consti-
tution which had borne the test of time, and they were watching
with an anxiety which they did not care to conceal the extravagances
of the Protestant refugees from the Continent." No sharp line of
demarcation then divided, as at present, the Church of England from
Continental Protestantism. The celebrated Zurich letters* furnish
proof abundant that even those divines of the new religion counted
most learned and moderate took their theology from the Helvetian
reformers, to whom they apologized with filial submission for the
temporary retention of a few shreds of the old ceremonial, declaring,
however, without reserve, that they waited but for opportunity to
sweep away these "relics of the Amorites forever."
In the face of facts, the modem Anglican continuity theory would
be simply ludicrous were it not for its mischievous influence on con-
fused and illogical minds, or to those having neither opportunity nor
taste for accurate historical investigation. The records of the time
and episcopal visitation articles show that the altar stones, conse-
crated with the holy oil and marked with the five crosses of Christ's
wounds, on which for nearly a thousand years the Sacred Victim
had been offered from the rising to the setting of the sun, were cast
into the dirf't with the relics of the saints and martyrs which they
covered.
The sanctuary was polluted, the daily sacrifice was taken away,
the eternal priesthood^ was replaced by the preaching of Geneva.
The material church buildings and outward form of government
alone remained, beautiful still, but the deceptive beauty of a corpse
in which the heart has ceased to beat and from which the soul has
fled forever.
Mr. Froude remarks:
" Anglican High Church theology had as yet no general accept-
ance. Divines like Whitgift, who sought for favor and promotion,
professed the theory of the Via Media, but they had no national f ol-
* Published by the Parker society.
f At Durham next year the stone of the hig-h altar was taken out of
a rubbish heap and replaced by the insurgents. See recent letter of
Canon Hobson to " Tablet," on desecration and trampling- on one of the
ancient altar stones of Exeter Cathedral to the present day.
X " Secundum ordinem Melchisidec."
32 THE OLOBB.
lowing, and perhaps did not altogether believe it themselves. The
sincere who were not Protestants were Catholics, either recusants
who preferred their conscience to their property, or schismatics who
attended the English churches under protest, to escape payment of
the fines, and one as well as the other had looked forward to the re-
establishment of orthodoxy when the Queen's death should open the
way to a change. United, they still largely outnumbered their op-
ponents, and under the modern constitution would have had a large
majority in the House of Commons."
That Elizabeth and her advisers contemplated not continuity, but
absolute doctrinal rupture with the past, is proved by the re-intro-
duction of the second, not the first, Prayer Book of Edward VI., and
the extreme Protestant views of the divines she selected for her new
hierarchy. With one exception* they were all more or less Cal-
vinists.
* Cheney of Gloucester. In the library of the Bishop of St. John's,
N.F., to which I had free access during a recent visit to that city, by
the kindness of its munificent prelate, I found a curious letter to
Cheney from the famous Martyr Father Campion, who had been once
a favourite pupil and prot^gfe of Cheney and ordained by him Deacon,
according to the Anglican form. While tenderly mindful of the Bishop's
iormer great kindness to him, and gracefully recognizing the " natural
goodness of one so near to the kingdom of God, confessing the living
presence of Christ in the Sacrament on the altar and the freedom of
man's will, persecuting no Catholics in your Diocese, hospitable to your
townspeople and to good men, plundering not your palace and lands
aa your brethren do," he proceeds to remark, in language which
might be addressed to a High Church Bishop of the present day, " that
he is deeply disliked by the Protestants, grieved over by the Catholics,
laughed at by the world." Goodman, a successor of Cheney's, is re-
ported to have said, " that Cheney was a Papist, brought up his servants
Papists, and died a Papist, obstinately refusing to recant." But he prob-
ably meant Lutheranus-Papisticus, a term by which the precursors of
the Landian school were known in polemical writings. The sad part is
that Campion, who had resided in the palace in the closest and most
intimate association to the Bishop, seems to doubt that he was sincere
in conforming to the new religion. Cheney's position throughout was
peculiar. He had conformed to the Edwardian changes, but always
professing the Real Presence and maintaining the celibate state, ap-
peared in the first convocation of the Marian clergy and retained some
of his preferments during her reign. On Elizabeth's accession he strove
hard for promotion, writing to Cecil that he was in poverty, " and al-
though I spent my youth mostly about Court, I seem likely to spend my
old age about a cart." It is very curious to note that Bishop Goodman
0ATH0LIGI8M UNDER ELIZABETH. S3
" With no special reverence for the office which they had under-
taken, and she treated them in return with studied contempt, she
called them doctors, as the highest title to which she considered them
to have any real right."
Curiously, whether from conviction or prejudice, on one point
the Queen remained obstinately adherent to the past. While writ-
ing to Sussex, she expressed " grave doubts whether the Mass was
not an offense against God,"* yet she always opposed to the utmost
of her power the matrimonial alliances to which her new clergy de-
voted so much attention.
Within a few months of her accession, Sandys, writing to Parker,
says: " The Queen's Majesty will wink at it, but not stablish it by
law, which is nothing else but to bastardise our children."t That
Elizabeth on this point, however, fairly expressed the general opin-
ion, may be inferred from the fact that, with the exceptions of Cran-
mer and Parker, a married Primate never sat at Lambeth until long
after the accession of the House of Hanover.
" I was in horror," wrote Parker to the Secretary;]; after a peremp-
tory summons to Court, " to hear such words come from her mild
nature and Christianly learned conscience, as she spoke concerning
God's holy ordinance and institution of matrimony . . . inso-
much that the Queen's Highness expressed to me a repentance that we
were thus appointed in office, wishing it otherwise. . . . Horse-
keeper's wives, porters', poulterers' and butchers' wives may have
their cradles going, and honest learned men expulsed with open
note."
The Primate apparently forgot that the Queen might hardly have
considered horse-keepers and butchers as the highest type of ex-
ample for her new clergy. As the Queen and the wives of the no-
bility and upper classes, as a rule, declined to receive and studiously
avoided the helpmates of the reformed ministry, few women of re-
spectability cared to become the wives of even the highest digni-
died acknowledgfing himself a Koman Catholic, and of course it is quite
possible that Cheney may have made the same admission at the last
as did the celebrated Miles Magrath, Archbishop of Cashel, and many
others.
* MSS. Germany. Quoted by Fronde, Vol. III. Let modem ritualists
note Mass not Masses.
f Quoted by Burnet.
:( The Archbishop of Canterbury to Cecil. Quoted by Breen.
VOL. VII. — 3.
34 2 HE GLOBE,
taries, who were thus driven in many instances to seek most undesir-
able partners, " at which," says Sandes, " the weaker brethren were
scandalized and the Catholics laughed."
In the end of the year we have been considering (15G8) the royal
anger had been aroused on this question by the request of Bishop
Cox, of Ely,* to be allowed to remarry. He was one of the most
learned and respectable of the clergy who had gone over to the new
religion, and his conduct on this occasion gives probably the key to
his apostasy. He was now in his sixty-ninth year, and " might with
no great difficulty have remained, one would have thought, a wid-
ower." t
Mr. Froude continues:
" He explained his difficulty to Cecil with ludicrous gravity, J He
said that he wished to spend the remainder of his life without offense
to God. The Queen's displeasure was death to him, but the dis-
pleasure of the Almighty was more to be dreaded. The Almighty
had left him without one special gift, and placed him in the num-
ber of those who could not receive the saying of Christ. He was be-
tween Scylla and Charybdis, but it was more dreadful to fall into the
hands of the living God, and a second wife was a necessity."
It is both instructive and singular to find Cecil, the firmest and
bravest advocate of the Reformation, lamenting the decay of rever-
ence and the spiritual disorder which we now see to have been its in-
evitable fruit. § In a State paper, dated March 10, 1569, he regrets
that the service of God and the sincere profession of Christianity
were much decayed, and in place of it, partly Papistry, partly pagan-
ism and irreligion had crept in. Baptists, deriders of religion, epicu-
reans and atheists were everywhere, and such decay of obedience in
♦ Froude.
f Richard Cox, educated at Eton and Kings College, Cambridge, was a
Prot%6 of Cardinal Wolsey's. He was for some time head master of
Eton and Archdeacon of Ely, with a Prebendal stall in that church;
subsequently Dean of Oxford and Chancellor of the University, being at
that time in great favor with King Henry VIII. In the next reign, he
became Dean of Westminster and tutor to the King, enjoying also one
of the rich canonries of Windsor. Fled to the continent during the
Marian period, returned on Elizabeth's accession and put into Ely,
which he held until his death.
X •• Me etiam senem suo dono destituit, et in Illorum Numero me vult
esse qui non capiunt verbum hoc ut ait Christus Dominus Noster."
§ Froude.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 35
civil policy, as compared with the f earfulness and reverence in times
past, would astonish any wise and considerate person."*
Protestant intolerance commenced to manifest itself in its coarsest
shades. In February, 1569, the Spanish Ambassador wrote to the
Duke of Alva that a furious persecution was commencing. The
prisons were overflowing. In Bridewell alone there were 150
Spaniards forced to listen to Protestant sermons, and tempted by
offers of rewards to abandon their faith. In the following Aprilf
the house of one of the largest Spanish merchants in London was
searched by Elizabeth's police.
The furniture of his chapel, the crucifixes, the images of the
saints were carried away, borne in mock procession through the
streets, and burnt in Cheapside amidst the jests of the populace, who
cried as they saw them blazing: " These are the gods of Spain. To
the flames with them, and to the flames with their worshippers."
Had there been the slightest organization among the Catholic party,
they would have easily secured free toleration, but the inaction
of the southern and western Catholics generally was fatal to their
cause, but they appear to have been "smitten with confusion."
Some rested their hopes on the Scottish succession, some planned
the marriage of the Queen with some Catholic prince or nobleman,
others looked abroad for help; so that, as Mr. Froude describes the
situation, " the best of the Catholics, who cared simply for the res-
toration of the faith, shrank from risking their cause . . .
amidst the selfishness of national and personal interests."
The address from the knights and gentlemen of Lincolnshire to
Philip of Spain during this year, imploring his protection, reveals
the total absence of any cohesion amongst them.
In the winter of 1569 occurred the Insurrection of the North,
ever memorable both for the rashness of its conception and the ter-
rible severity used in its suppression. The proclamation of the lead-
ers stated that "they called on all true Englishmen to Join with
them in their attempt to restore the Crown, the nobility and the wor-
ship of God to their former estate."
* Burg-hley papers, Vol. I. This is marvellous evidence, coming' from
such a powerful mind as Cecil, trained to the highest accuracy of ob-
servation, forced by the stern logic of facts to condemn the crop of his
own planting.
t 1569.
36 THE GLOBE,
By the northern people the so-called Reformation had been abso-
lutely repudiated from the very first. " There are not," says Sir
Ralph Sadler,* " in all this country ten gentlemen that do favor and
allow of Her Majesty's proceedings in the cause of religion." Occa-
sionally, indeed, some of them attended the established worship that
they might escape the grievous penalties threatened by the law, but
this very conformity, extorted in opposition to conscience, exas-
perated their discontent. They saw around them examples of suc-
cessful insurrection in the cause of religious liberty. The Calvinists
of Scotland had established their own creed in defiance of all opposi-
tion. The Calvinists of France had thrice waged war against their
own sovereign; both had been aided with men and money by the
Queen of England. If this were lawful to other religionists, why
might not they also draw the sword and claim the rights of con-
science ?t
The first and only success of this movement was the occupation of
Durham on the 14th of November " by the Earls of Northumber-
land and Westmoreland, Sir Christopher Neville, Sir Cuthbert Nev-
ille, and old Richard Norton, who carried the ancient banner of the
Pilgrimage of Grace, the cross and streamers and the five wounds, be-
hind which he had followed Robert Aske in 1536 from Pomfret to
Doncaster. They strode into the cathedral. They overthrew the
Communion board, they tore the English Bible and prayer book to
pieces. The ancient altar stone was taken from a rubbish heap
where it had been thrown, and solemnly replaced, and the holy
water vessel % was restored at the west door; and then, amidst tears,
embraces, prayers, and thanksgivings, the organ pealed out, the
candles and torches were lighted, and Mass was said once more in the
long-desecrated aisles." §
But the dissensions of the leaders, the failure of their expectations
of assistance from the Duke of Alva and the apathy of many of the
* Sir Ilalph Sadler was sent to York on the outbreak of the rebellion,
nominally as treasurer of the army; really as a spy on the Earl of
Sussex, the commander of the Roj'al forces.
f Lingard.
\ The prrcat Holy Water Stoup was found in Dean Whittingham's
(the brother-in-law of Calvin) kitchen, where it had been used for soak-
ing salt fish. So much for Elizabethan continuity with the ancient
Faith.
§ Froude.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 37
Catholics were fatal to the success of the rebellion. The ample ven-
geance taken on the insurgents may be gathered from a letter written
by the Queen's lieutenant, the Earl of Sussex, on the 28th of Decem-
ber, to Cecil. Speaking of his intended victims, he remarks: " The
number whereof is yet uncertain, for that I know not the number of
the towns, but I guess that it will not be under six or seven hundred
at the least that shall be executed of the common sort, besides the
prisoners taken in the field."*
Though terrified into outward obedience, a considerable majority
of the people were as disaffected as ever to the new religion. The
report as to the state of the Diocese of Chichester after ten years'
rule of such an earnest favorer of the innovations as Bishop Barlow,t
is most interesting.
The Koyal Commissioners report: "In many churches they have
no sermons, not one in seven years, and some not one in twelve years,
as the parishes have declared to the preachers that lately came thither
to preach. Few churches have their quarter sermons, according to
the Queen's Majesty's injunctions. In Boxgrave is a very fair
church, and therein is neither parson, vicar nor curate, but a sorry
reader. In the Deanery of Medhurst there are some beneficed men
which did preach in Queen Mary's reign, and now do not, nor will
not, and yet keep their livings; others be fostered in gentlemen's
houses, and some between Sussex and Hampshire, % and are hinderers
of true religion, and do not minister. Others come not at their par-
ish church, nor receive the Holy Communion at Easter, but at that
time get them out of the country until that feast be passed, and re-
turn not again until then. They have many books that were made
beyond the seas, and they have them there with the first; for exhibi-
tioners goeth out of that shire and diocese unto them beyond the
seas. As to Mr. Stapleton, § who, being excommunicated by the
* Sir Cuthbert Sharp " Memorials." Quoted by Lingard.
t Barlow had just died, December 10, 1569.
X It will be remembered that Barlow in 1564 had reported that the
western part of his Diocese was more or less Popish.
§ Thomas Stapleton, born at Henfield, Sussex, in the month and year
of the martyrdom of Sir Thomas More, educated first at Canterbury,
then at Winchester and at New College, Oxford, of which house he
was a fellow A.D., 1554. He was a Prebendary of Chichester when
Elizabeth came to the throne, and forced to quit the country, took
refuge in Louvain. He was for some time catechist at Douay, but, re-
called to Louvain, he was made Regius Professor of Theology and Canon
38 THE GLOBE.
Bishop,* did fly and avoid the realm, these men have his goods and
send him money for them. In the church of Anindel, certain altars
do stand yet still to the offense of the godly, which murmur and
speak much against the same. They have yet in the diocese in many
places thereof, images hidden and other Popish ornaments, ready to
set up the Mass again within twenty-four hours' warning, as in the
town of Battle and in the parish of Lindefield, where they be yet very
blind and superstitious. In the to^vn of Battle, where a preacher
doth come and speak anything against the Pope's doctrine they will
not abide, but get them out of the church. In many places they
keep yet their chalices, looldng to have Mass again, whereas they
were commanded to turn them into communion cups after our
fashion, keeping yet weight for weight. Some parishes feign that
their chalices were stolen away, and therefore they ministered in
glasses and profane goblets. In many places the people cannot yet
say their commandments, and in some not the articles of their be-
lief. In the cathedral church of Chichester there be very few
preachers resident; of thirty-one prebendaries, scarcely four or five.
Few of the aldermen of Chichester be of a good religion, but are ve-
hemently suspected to favor the Pope's doctrine, and yet they be
Justices of the Peace." \
The beginning of 1570 was devoted to the punishment of the
northern Catholics. In this Mr. Froude acknowledges that " anger
and avarice had for a time overclouded Elizabeth's character. On
the 23d of January the Provost Marshal, Sir George Bowes, re-
ported that he had put to death about six hundred, besides the six or
seven hundred artisans, laborers^ or poor tenant farmers who had
been previously picked out for summary execution by Sussex. J Still
Elizabeth was not satisfied. . . . When the martial law was over
she ordered the Council of York to attaint all offenders that might
be gotten by process or otherwise, till at length the Crown Prosecu-
tor, Sir Thomas Gargrave, was obliged to tell her that if she were
obeyed many places would be left naked of inhabitants." §
of St. Peter's there, where he died October 12, 1598, having lived forty-
two years in exile for the Faith.
♦William Barlow.
fReiMjrt as to Diocese of Chichester MSS. Domestic, Rolls House.
Dated end of December, 1569.
X Eighty suffered at Durham, forty at Darlington.
§ Froude.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 39
Nothing daunted, the northern Catholics maintained a stubborn
resistance. This year (1570) " the people of Lancashire refused ut-
terly to come any more to divine service in the English tongue. Lord
Derby forbade the further use of the liturgy in his private chapel.
Grindal, * who had been translated to York in succession to Young, f
found on arrival at his new diocese " that the gentlemen were not af-
fected to godly religion. They observed the old fasts and holy days;
they prayed still on their strings of beads."
* Edmund Grindal was born near St. Bees, in the county of Cumber-
land, educated at Cambridge. He became Fellow and Master of Pem-
broke Hall; a Prebendary of Westminster under Edward VI. He
shared the fortunes of the extreme Reformers, retiring abroad during
Mary's reign. He returned on the accession of Elizabeth and was made
Bishop of London on Bonner's deprivation; translated to York in 1570.
He succeeded Parker in the See of Canterbury in 1575. Grindal had
deeply imbibed the spirit of Geneva, still he was of a far honester
nature than the majority of the Elizabethan prelates, neither alienat-
ing his church property, nor trafficking in scandalous dispensations.
His Puritanic sympathies soon estranged him from the Court and his
resolute refusal to put down Puritan practices led to his peremptory
sequestration and inhibition from his functions in 1577 by the Queen.
For five years he remained under the royal displeasure. In 1582 he was
restored and a year later died at his palace of Croydon (July 6, 1583).
" Being really blind," says Fuller, " more through grief than age, he
was willing to put of his clothes before he went to bed and in his
lifetime to resign his place to Dr. Whitgift, who refused such accept-
ance thereof. And the Queen, commiserating his condition, was gra-
ciously pleased to say, that as she had made him, . . . so he should
die an Archbishop. Grindal founded a grammar school in his native
town.
f Thomas Young had died June 26, 1568, but no successor was ap-
pointed until 1570. Young had been one of the chapter of St. David's
in 1551, and one of the principal accusers of Bishop Ferrers, by prae-
munire in a schedule of no less than forty-six articles. Ferrers' own
party must have disapproved of his mode of dealing with the property of
his See for he was committed to prison. Mr. Burke seems to consider the
whole transaction to have been one of the many private battles of the
reformers over the division of the plunder. Young seems to have com-
plied in Mary's reign, for we find him on the 20th of April, 1557,
preaching in London at the church of St. Mary, Spital, before the Lord
Mayor, twenty -five aldermen, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lords Justices,
and a large congregation of noblemen and commoners (Machyn's diary).
On Elizabeth's accession elected to St. David's, 1560, he was translated
to York in 1561, after the death of the Archbishop-elect, Dr. William
May, formerly Dean of St. Paul's. Young was appointed Lord President
of the North, June 20, 1564, and retained the office until his death.
40 THE GLOBE.
As Bishop of London, he had been principally troubled with the
over-straight Genevans; in the North he was in another world. Dis-
guised priests flitted about like bats in the twilight, or resided in
private houses in serving men's apparel. Corpse candles were
lighted again beside the coffins of the dead, while clerks and curates
sang requiems at their side."*
No one had gained by the so-called Reformation save those who
had shared in the plunder. With the shattering of Catholic unity
the golden links f which had bound all classes together were burst.
" The customs by which old English country life had been made
beautiful, the festivals of the recurring seasons, the church bells,
the monuments of the dead, the roofless aisles of the perishing ab-
beys— all were silent preachers of the old faith and passionate pro-
tests against the new," | while " divisions of faith had brought with
them everywhere confusions and diversities of practice."§
In September, 1570, it appears by a letter of the Queen to the
Bishop of Norwich that the services in his cathedral had been de-
nuded of every relic of the ancient ritual. Certain of the preben-
daries had changed the administration of the Sacrament, pauperized
the ceremonial, broken down the organ, and, so far as lay in them,
had turned the quire into a Genevan conventicle. In the debate on
the Communion Bill in the Upper House, in the Parliament of 1571,
" one Catholic nobleman said tauntingly, that if the twenty-two
right reverend lords could agree among themselves as to what they
required the laity to receive in the Sacrament, they might get over
their objections; at present every parish had its own theory on the
matter." II
In order of the services in the church of Northampton, June, 1571,
we find that " Communion was held four times a year; the table was
in the body of the church at the far end of the middle aisle."!
Their Puritan scruples, however, seem to have been mainly con-
♦ Qrindal to Cecil. Quoted by Froude.
f Of a common faith and a common charity.
t Froude. § Ibid. || Ibid.
IMSS. Domestic. Rolls House, 5th of June, 1571, quoted by Froude.
It would be amusing', if it were not so serious, to contemplate how
serenely the modern High Church party shut their eyes to these vacant
links in their continuity chain. John Wesley said truly " that Apostolic
succession was unknown in the Church of England during the first
half of Elizabeth's reign."
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 41
fined to the inside of their churches. Honesty was apparently not
one of their articles of belief, for in this year* it became nec-
essary to pass a bill "to check the profligate administration of
church property by ecclesiastical corporations, and a companion
measure was introduced, originally perhaps as part of the same
statute, so singular in some of its provisions as to deserve particular
notice. Puritanism had not yet blinded the eyes of Protestants to
the merits of the faith of their fathers. The House of Conmions
could still acknowledge an excellence in the clergy of earlier times,
to which they saw but faint approaches in the degenerate ministry
which had taken the place of the Catholic priests. ' The Queen's
noble progenitors,' so ran an act which never reached maturity, * had
in times past endowed the clergy of the realm with most ample and
large possessions that godly religion might be the better advanced
among the people, that the poor might be relieved, the children of
the nobility and gentry of the realm be virtuously educated in the
fear and knowledge of the Almighty.' Whether the revenues of these
estates were now employed and bestowed acording to the intent and
meaning of their donors was a thing to be pondered and considered.
The clergy, being now married and having wives, did overmuch
alienate their minds from the honest and careful duty to which they
were bound to attend. The poor were left in their poverty, the an-
cient hospitality was no longer maintained, the ministers of the
Church accepted and reserved the most part and portion of the yearly
revenues of their dignities unto themselves, to the slander of the
whole estate of the clergy." f
The Catholic clergy were now utterly persecuted. An act was
passed (1571) making it high treason for any person calling him-
self a priest to receive English subjects into the Church of Rome,
and high treason in the subject to be received. . . . It had
been discovered after the suppression of the insurrection that multi-
tudes of seditious (?) priests were continually going up and down the
country in disguise, or hiding in country houses as serving-men.
The Council proposed that all such persons wherever found should
be treated as vagrants or Egyptians; that such priests should be pil-
loried, set in the stocks, or whipt at the cart's tail,t and that the gen-
*1671. f Quoted by Froude.
X Mr. Froude's impartiality may be fairly estimated by the fact that
he terms the above " a practically useful measure," considering' that
42 THE GLOBE,
tlemen who entertained them should be deprived of their prop-
erty.
On the 20th of May, 1572, the Archbishops and Bishops waited
upon the Queen in a body at St. James's Palace " to move Her Maj-
esty to assent to justice against the Scottish Queen. ... To
show pity to an enemy, a stranger, a professed member of Anti-
christ . . . might justly be called crudelis misericordia;" * and
in September the same prelates represented to Her Majesty that for
the quiet of tlie realm such Catholic priests and gentlemen as were in
prison for refusing the oath of allegiance should be immediately put
to death. t In the same winter, the anger of the reformers (?) was
aroused by the mission of the Earl- of Worcester to represent Eliza-
beth at the christening of the little French Princess, born in October,
1572; " that an English nobleman — one, too, of notorious Catholic
tendencies — should go in state to Paris . . . was considered
by the Protestants a hideous scandal. So hideous, indeed, that the
Earl was attacked by a privateer midway between Dover and Calais.
Four of his men were killed and seven others wounded. The attack
was believed in London to have been instigated by some of the Eng-
lish Bishops." X So desperate was the English Government at that
moment, so determined to use any means to harass and embarrass the
Catholic Powers, that cannons and muskets were sent to the Mediter-
ranean for the corsairs of Barbary, whilst to make all sure at home,
the Prince of Orange was told that if he could plunge down on Lou-
vain, seize the English refugees and send them home, he could not
demand a price which Elizabeth would refuse to pay for them." §
To the wise, it became more and more apparent that the religious
the Catholic Priests were English gentlemen, scholars of Oxford and
Cambridge, who had been turned out of their livings by obscure time
servers of, for the most part, low origin and doubtful characters. For
the baseness of the Elizabethan clergy see a paper by the late Mr.
Buckle.
*If the Catholic Bishops in the preceding reign had so forgotten
themselves as to have waited upon the Queen and demanded Elizabeth's
execution, the story would have been in every child's history to the pres-
ent day.
f Froude. — If this request had been acceded to, every county in Eng-
land would have been deluged with Catholic blood. Probably more
would have been executed in some counties than the total number
burnt by Mary.
X Froude, MSS. Sien ancas. § Froude.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 43
unity of England had been broken forever. The endless shades of
opinions within the new establishment were commencing to manifest
themselves in open strife and angry recriminations. Writing from
Durham to Gualter, the Bishop,* speaking of the extreme Puritan
party, remarks: "-Not only the habits, but our whole ecclesiastical
polity, discipHne, the revenues of the Bishops, ceremonies or public
forms of worship, liturgies, vocation of ministers, or the ministration
of the Sacraments, all these things are now openly attacked from
the press, and it is contended with the greatest bitterness that they
are not to be endured in the Church of Christ. The doctrine alone
they leave untouched; as to everything else, by whatever name you
call it, they are clamorous for its removal. The godly mourn, the
Papists exult that we are now fighting against each other, who were
heretofore wont to attack them with our united forces." f But as
Dr. Lingard remarks, " the Puritans were considered brethren whose
transgressions sprung from an exuberance of zeal; the Catholics as
idolaters whose worship could not be tolerated by the true servants
of the Almighty; the poverty of the former offered no reward; the
wealth of the latter presented an alluring bait to the orthodoxy of
their persecutors. . . . Many of the more zealous or more
timid among the Catholics sought with their families an asylum be-
yond the sea. Their lands and property were immediately seized
by the Crown, and given or sold at low prices to the followers of the
Court." X Those who remained might be divided into two classes.
Some, to escape the penalties, attended occasionally at the estab-
lished service, and endeavored to elude the charge of hypocrisy by
maintaining from the words of the Queen's proclamation that such
attendance was with them nothing more than the discharge of a civil
duty, an expression of their obedience to the letter of the law. But
this evasion did not satisfy more timorous consciences, and the
greater number abstained from a worship which they disapproved,
and were, in consequence, compelled to pass their lives in alarm and
solitude. They lay at the mercy of their neighbors and enemies;
they were daily watched by the pursuivants; they were liable at any
* James Pilking-ton.
f Bishop of Durham to Gualter, 20th of July, 1573. Zurich Letters,
110, Parker Society.
ij: In Strype (11, app. 102), may be seen a list of fug-itives, compre-
hending- sixty-eig-ht names, certified for this purpose into the Ex-
chequer.
44 THE GLOBE.
hour to be hurried before the Courts of High Commission, to be in-
terrogated upon oath how often they had been at church, and when
or where they had received the Sacrament; to be condemned as recu-
sants to fines and imprisonment, or as persons reconciled to forfeit-
ure and confinement for life. Their terrors were renewed every year
by proclamation, or secret messages, calling upon the magistrates,
the Bishops and the ecclesiastical commissioners to redouble their
vigilance and enforce the laws respecting religion. Private houses
were searched to discover priests or persons assisting at Mass. The
foreign Ambassadors complained of the violation of their privileges
by the intrusion of the pursuivants into their chapels, and even Eliza-
beth herself, to give the example, occasionally condescended to com-
mit to prison the recusants who were denounced to her in the course
of her progresses."
During the past fourteen years the ranks of the unfortunate
Catholic clergy had been lessened by death, imprisonment, banish-
ment and compliance, and the Church of England, destitute of all
episcopal supervision, a scattered flock without a shepherd, seemed
doomed to the same utter destruction that it received in the north-
ern kingdoms of the Continent.
Under Almighty God, the existence of Catholicity in England
at the present day, and the fact that it was not completely stamped
out by the so-called Eef ormation, are due almost entirely to one man.
This was William Allen, of blessed memory, principal of St. Mary's
Hall, Oxford, and Canon of York. On the death of Mary and the le-
gal re-establishment of Protestantism, he soon saw more clearly than
many others which way things were drifting, and, resigning his pre-
ferments in 1560, was forced in the following year to seek refuge in
the Low Countries. Even then he stole back home in 1562, that his
native air might cure a wasting sickness, and seems to have been act-
ive during the next three years in maintaining the Catholic cause in
the north, f
Finally driven out of England in 1565, wliile pursuing his own
studies abroad, he gradually formed a scheme of assembling a num-
ber of Catholic young Englishmen, like himself in exile, in order to
give them opportunity of Catholic education. A beginning was
made in a hired house at Douay, in the north of France, in 1568.*
♦ Allen was of an ancient Lancashire family, the Aliens of Rossal.
f Collegii Anglo-Duaceni Diarium I, 3. " Anno Domini Nostri Jesu
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 45
Douay was chosen because it was already under Oxford influences.
It was a new university founded in 1560. Its Chancellor and many
of its professors were Oxford men, as were nearly all Allen's early
companions. Naturally, therefore, they formed their college on the
model of those of their own university, and it became the continu-
ation of old Catholic Oxford. The number of students rapidly mul-
tiplied, and Douay became a general center for English Catholics
exiled from their country.
All those who came were received with open arms, and no one was
ever refused admission, so that the number of students was often in
excess of what the regular income would warrant, for Cardinal Allen
explains " they canot wait till a vacancy occurs, as is usual in colleges
which belong to places at peace, seeing that they have come to these
foreign parts forlorn and stripped of everything, often too, with
debts contracted for the journey, so that they cannot live a day with-
out aid, much less return home to the heretics through so many dan-
gers, and across such tracts of land and sea; if we sent back or re-
jected only one such person who was otherwise worthy to be received,
none would ever come afterwards." The first idea had been to pro-
vide a house of study and to educate clergy who would be able
to return to England when Protestantism had passed away, as it was
confidently hoped it would. This was, of course, a very different
thing from sending over missionaries in defiance of the law while
England was still in the hands of the Protestants, which was appar-
ently quite an afterthought.
" But when once the college was founded, this soon became its
Christ! millesimo quingentesimo sexagesimo octavo, cum hoc Egregium
opus, divina fretus misericordia et benignitate, inchoaret reverendus
Dominus, Dominus Guilielmus Alanus doctus et plus Sacerdos, postea
SanctsB Eomanse Ecclesia Cardinalis Presbyter, Angliae nuncupatus —
primos sui Collegii alumnos habuit sex sacra Theologise Studiosos sibi
subditos, quatuor quidem Anglos, et duos Belgas. Qui omnes ex piorum
quorundam abbatum et aliorum Benefactorum eleemosinis, industria
Domini Alani collectis, vixerunt in unis simul aedibus in universitate
Duacensi. Angli erant isti: Richardus Bristous, Vigorniensis; Joan-
nes Martialis, postea canonicus Insulensis; Edouardus Risdensus,
postea Carthusianus; Joannes Whitus. Belgae autem Joannes Ravas-
tonus, Simon Colierius. Hinc porro Catui continenter se adjunxit
Dominus Morganus Philipus, Venerabilis Sacerdos, quondam ejusdem
Alani in Universitate Oxoniensis preceptor, nunc vero in hoc sancto
opere, et Vivus Coadjutor et moriens insignis Benefactor.
46 THE GLOBE.
chief work, and for more than two hundred years the faith was kept
alive almost entirely by missionaries who came over from Douay."*
On the IGth of June, 1573, Thomas Woodhouse, a priest of Lincoln-
shire, who had long been a prisoner in the Fleet, was arraigned in the
Guildhall of London, and there condemned of high treason for de-
nying the Queen's ecclesiastical supremacy. Three days subse-
quently he was hanged and quartered at Tyburn. On the 20th of
August following, another Eoyal proclamation ordered all Bishops,
Justices and Mayors to execute the acts of uniformity with all dili-
gence and severity.
" Kor must we forget," says Sandes, " those poor people who, not
having the means to pay the fines laid upon them because they would
not enter the churches nor be present at the profane services of the
Protestants, were, by the sentence of the Judge, long and piteously
dragged, stripped of their clothes and cruelly whipped through the
streets of Winchester." But the spirit of the Catholics was yet far
from broken. " On the 4th of April, 1574, being Palm Sun-
day," writes one George Gardyner to the Bishop of Norwich, " at
one hour, at four sundry Masses, in four sundry places and out cor-
ners of the city of London, were fifty-three persons taken, whereof
the most part were ladies, gentlewomen and gentlemen. Twenty-
two of them stand stoutly to the matter, whereof the Lady Morley
and the Lady Browne, which paid before 100 marks for her first of-
fence, are the chief. The priests glory in their doings, and did afHrm
that there were five hundred Masses in England that day." There
were also found in their several chapels " divers Latin books, beads,
images, patens, chalices, crosses, vestments, pyxes and such like."
The first small batch of four missionaries from Allen's college landed
this year in England, " a cloud no larger than a man's hand," a
pledge and assurance, nevertheless, that the infallible and unchange-
able Church, twice victorious, twice again conquered for the time in
England, was girding up her loins for the third long struggle, the is-
sue of which is now so pregnant with hope.f
• The Very Rev. Bernard Ward.
f In the last fifty years over 500 of the most devout and learned of
the Anglican clergy have submitted to the Catholic Church, sacrificing
position, preferment, and material comforts; in many instances the
incumbents of rich livings, have given them up to obtain only a small
pittance for themselves and families as clerks or tutors, or in some
other precarious employment. Their example has been followed by
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 47
That a person like Elizabeth, with no definite religious opinions,
should have sanctioned the persecution of either her Catholic or
Nonconformist subjects, will always remain a blot on her character,
but as Froude says truly, " there are practices in the game of politics
which the historian, in the name of morality, is bound to condemn,
which, nevertheless, in this false and confused world, statesmen till
the end of time will continue to repeat. ... To ask Eliza-
beth to deal plainly was to ask the winds to say from what quar-
ter they were about to blow." After seventeen years of legal Protest-
antism, even as late as 1575, the same historian writes: " In her heart
she was probably meditating how best to bring back England into
communion wdth the rest of Christendom. Her ecclesiastical ad-
ministration at home tended in the same direction and towards the
same issue. It is evident that neither then, nor till long after, did
she regard the Church of England as more than a provisional ar-
rangement, an interim intended to last but while the confusions of
Europe continued. Her Bishops she treated with studied insolence,
as creatures of her own whom she had made and could unmake at
pleasure. The Bishops themselves lived as if they suspected their
day to be a short one, and made the most of their opportunities while
they lasted. Scandalous dilapidations, destructions of woods, waste
of the property of the sees by beneficial leases, each incumbent en-
riching himself and his family at the expense of his successors — this
is the substantial history of the Anglican hierarchy, with a few hon-
orable exceptions, for the first twenty years of its existence. At the
time when Walsingham was urging Elizabeth to an alliance with the
Scottish Protestants, Matthew Parker,* Archbishop of Canterbury,
was just dead. He had left behind him enormous wealth, which had
been accumulated, as is proved by a statement in the handwriting of
100 Admirals, Generals, and field officers and over 250 of the learned
professions, lawyers, and physicians. It was publicly stated last
month, June 1895, that in the same period, in one Catholic church
in London, over 4,000 converts, for the most part persons of education,
have been received. Not that the souls of persons of education are
superior, perhaps more often the reverse, but the experience of all
history shows that the opinion of the schools in one century is that
of the people in the next; slowly but as surely as water filters through
the different strata of the earth.
* Parker died on the 17th of May, 1575, at his palace of Lambeth, in his
71st year.
48 TBE GLOBE.
hie successor, by the same practices* which had brought about the
first revolt against the Church. He had been corrupt in the distribu-
tion of his own patronage, and he had sold his interest with others.
No Catholic prelate in the old, easy times had more flagrantly abused
the dispensation system. Every year he made profits by admitting
children to the Cure of Souls for money. He used a graduated scale,
in which the price for inducting an infant into a benefice varied with
the age, children under fourteen not being inadmissable if the ade-
quate fees were forthcoming."
In 1576 the resistance of Bishop Cox to the Queen's order to give
up some property of the See of Ely, in London, to her favorite. Sir
Christopher Hatton, provoked an explosion of the royal wrath, and
the " proud prelate " was informed that if he did not immediately
comply, " by God, she would unfrock him." On this matter. Lord
North's letter — ^the Bishop still persisting in his protest — may speak
for itself as to the character and course of proceedings of both the
Queen and the new Anglican hierarchy.
" This last denial," wrote North, " being added my Lord to Her
former demands, hath moved Her Highness to so great a misliking
as she purposes presently to send for you, and hear what account you
can render for this strange dealing towards your Gracious Sovereign.
Moreover, she determines to redress the infinite injuries which of
long time you have offered her subjects. For which purpose, to be
plain with your Lordship, she has given me order to hearken to my
neighbors' griefs, and likewise to prefer those complaints before Her
Majesty's Privy Council, for that you may be called to answer and the
parties satisfied. She has given orders for your coming up, which, I
suppose, you have already received, and withal you shall have a taste
to judge how well she liketh your loving usage. Now to advise you,
my Lord, I wish you from the bottom of my heart to shake off the
yoke of your stubbornness against Her Majesty's desires, to lay aside
your stiff-necked determination and yield yourself to her known
clemency. She is our God on earth. If there be perfection in flesh
and blood, undoubtedly it is in Her Majesty; for she is slow to re^
venge and ready to forgive, and yet, my Lord, she is right King
Henry, her father, for if any strive with her, all the princes in Europe
cannot make her yield. You will say to me you are determined to
leave your bishopric in Her Majesty's hands to dispose of at her
♦ More truly the abuse of certain practices.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 49
good pleasure, and I know that you have so reported among your
friends. Your wife has also couselled you to be a Latimer, glorying,
as it were, to stand against your natural prince. My Lord, let not
your wife's shallow experience carry you too far. You see that to
Court you must come. The Princess' good favor and grace will be
altered from you; your friends will be strange. It will be no ease
for your age to travel in winter, and I know well how you are horsed
and manned for that purpose. It will be no pleasure for you to have
Her Majesty and the Council know how wretchedly you live, how ex-
tremely covetous, how great a grazier, how marvelous a dairyman,
how rich a farmer, how great an owner. It will not like you that the
world know of your decayed houses, of the lead* and brick that you
sell from them, of the leases that you pull violently from many, of
the copyholds you lawlessly enter into, of the free lands which you
wrongfully possess, of the tolls and imposts which you raise, of God's
good ministers which you causelessly displace. All this I am to
prove against you, and shall be most heartily sorry to put it in exe-
cution. Wherefore, if you love credit and the continuance of Her
Majesty's favor, conform yourself and satisfy her requests; which, if
you list to do, no doubt the Queen is so inclined to good, as I trust
she will not only forget what is past and spare your journey but also
thankfully accept your doing herein. Thus all things may be paci-
fied which I will gladly bring to pass. Her Majesty shall receive
pleasure, her servants preferment and some profit, and yourself
honor and long comfort." f
And this spirit of greediness seems not to have been by any means
confined to one member of the Episcopate, Of the new Bench of
Protestant Prelates generally, and of the system under which they
were appointed. Mr. Froude sums up: " With their ineffectuality,
their simony and their worldliness, they brought their office into
contempt. . . . The very method in which the Bishops were
appointed, the comge d'elire, the deans and chapters meeting with a
praemunire I round their necks and going through the farce of a re-
* This seems to have been a common practice with the Reformed
Bishops. Holg-ate at York and Barlow at St. David's and Bath and
Wells were notorious for their dishonesty.
t Lord North to the Bishop of Ely. Hatfield MSS., quoted by Froude.
X Praemunire is the name g-iven in Eng-lish law to an offense of the
nature of a contempt towards the sovereign and his government, pun-
ishable with forfeiture and imprisonment.
VOL. VII. — 4.
50 THE OLOBE.
ligious service and a solemn election appeared a horror and a blas-
phemy to every one who believed God to be really alive." To the
complex nature of the Anglican establishment, Froude traces the
origin of the political disorders of the sixteenth, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.
" There came a cycle of revolutions, rising all of them from
the Mezentine union of a dead and a living creed. . . . The
history is a checkered one, and the final development still waits to
show itself. It cannot be said that the system has acted really
well. . . . The position of Bishops in the Church of England
has been from the first anomalous. The Episcopate was violently
separated from the Papacy, to which it would have preferred to re-
main attached, and to secure obedience it was made dependent on
the Crown. The method of Episcopal appointments instituted by
Henry VIII as a temporary expedient, and abolished under Edward
as an unreality, was re-established by Elizabeth; not certainly be-
cause she believed that the Invocation of the Holy Ghost was re-
quired for the completion of an election which her own choice had
already determined, not because the Bishops obtained any gifts or
graces in their consecration which she herself respected, but because
the shadowy form of an election, with a religious ceremony following
it, gave them the semblance of spiritual independency, the semblance
without the substance, which qualified them to be the instruments of
the system which she desired to enforce . . . and we have a right
to regret that the original theory of Cranmer was departed from,
that, being officers of the Crown, as much appointed by the Sovereign
as the Lord Chancellor, the Bishops should not have worn oj>enly
their real character and received their appointments immediately by
letters patent without further ceremony. ... No national
object was secured by the transparent fiction of the election and
consecration. The Invocation of the Holy Spirit either meant
nothing, and was a taking of sacred names in vain, or it implied that
the Third Person of the Trinity was, as a matter of course, to register
the already declared decision of the English Sovereign." (MHI)
" No additional respect was secured to the prelacy from the Cath-
olics . . . their reconciliation with the Church of England
was not made more easy to them by the possible regularity of a ques-
tioned ceremony at Lambeth.* .... The latest and most
*The mass of the English nation, Protestant and Catholic, are
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 61
singular theory about them is that of the modern English Neo Cath-
olic,* who disregards his Bishop's advice and disputes his censures,!
but looks on him, nevertheless, as some high-bred, worn-out animal,
useless in himself, but infinitely valuable for some mysterious pur-
pose of spiritual propagation."!
Of its foundress, Mr. Froude remarks: " It may be believed with-
out injustice that she did not desire too complete a triumph to the
Protestant cause, with it . . . fully and clearly victorious, it
would have gone hard with her theories of church government, and
the Via Media Anglicana would have ceased to exist."
That legal Anglicanism, to some extent, saved for a time English
Protestantism from the meshes of Sociniau agnosticism, in which
the Swiss and German reformers became so rapidly entangled, must
be gladly conceded, but it is equally true that, from the first, it like-
wise carried within its body the seeds of contention and decay. At
the present time divided into two factions, daily manifesting deeper
divergence as one approaches Rome, the other rationalism, it can
hardly be believed, even by its most enthusiastic admirers, to be
likely to oppose any permanent barrier between Catholicism and
Deism. §
Before concluding this paper, it will perhaps be desirable to refer
practically in accord with this statement of Mr. Froude. His premises
would only be disputed by the High Church Party, which, though
justly influential, from their learning, goodness, and zeal, out of all
proportion to their numbers, has little or no direct influence on the
great body of the people.
* High Church Party.
f That Anglicanism has not much altered since Mr. Froude wrote
his history, i.e., thirty years, is pretty clear by the recent charge of the
present Bishop of Exeter (Edward Bickersteth) ; concluding his Trien-
nial visitation, June, 1895; while acknowledging the "manifold and
self-denying labors of love " of his High Church clergy, he charges
them, that, in spite of his warnings and admonitions, they persistently
used incense, sacrificial vestments, mixed water with the sacramental
wine before the people, maintained the eastward position at the con-
secration, observed Komish festivals, and sang masses of Requiem for
the dead.
The Times, weekly edition, 21st of June, 1895.
X Froude.
§ From the numerous shades of opinion held together by the
State Establishment, from Puseyism to extreme Evangelicanism, it has
been described as " a politic church such as Machiavelli might have
approved."
62 THE GLOBE.
to the relations of the English Catholics with the unfortunate Mary,
Queen of Scots, at this period of Elizabeth's reign. It must be re-
membered, that under the will of Henry VIII, Mary, as the grand-
daughter of his eldest sister, Margaret, Queen of Scotland, was the
Heiress-Apparent; nor can there be a shadow of doubt that had the
religious unity of England remained unbroken all would have wel-
comed the prospect of a peaceful union of Great Britain under a
common sovereign.
The violent struggles between Mary and a part of her subjects,
originating more or less in the excesses of the so-called Reformation,
culminating in the exile and treacherous execution of the youthful
Queen, can only be here cursorily alluded to.
The unsettled state of Scotland and the many abuses in her eccle-
siastical administration had unfortunately but too well prepared the
80)1 for the seeds of confusion. " During a long course of years, the
highest dignities had been frequently filled by the illegitimate chil-
dren of royalty and the younger sons of noble families. Men, often
of little learning or morality themselves, they paid little attention to
the character and education of the inferior clergy. James V., for
example, had provided for his natural sons by making them Abbots
and Priors of Holyrood House, Kelso, Montrose, Coldingham and St.
Andrews.* It is right to observe that these commendatory Abbots
and Priors received the income, but interfered not with the domestic
economy of the monastery. Nevertheless, though they seldom took
orders, they ranked as clergymen, and by their irregularities con-
trived to throw an odium on the profession. The pride of the clergy,
their negligence in the discharge of their functions, and the rigor-
with which they exacted their dues, had become favorite subjects of
popular censure; and when the new preachers appeared, they dexter-
ously availed themselves of the humor of the time and adroitly min-
gled their denunciations of the ancient doctrine and the misconduct
of individual churchmen in one common invective."t Mr. Froude
says: " The Scottish nobles of the period were for the most part
* Lord James, afterwards Earl of Moray and regent, was Prior of St.
Andrews.
t Linpard. Most of these clerics, as a matter of fact, Mr. Fronde's
favorite, the Regent Moray for example, were quickly converted to
Protestantism and these contrived to secure the lands of their benefices
to their families in perpetuity. For exposure of the masked hypocrisy
of Moray, see Burke's " Historical Portraits."
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 63
without God, creed or principle. . . . The Church was rich and
the Scotch, like the Irish, even the good Catholics amongst them,
were anxious for plunder . . . The professors of the new re-
ligion were Calvinists of the bitterest type, fierce, ruthless and un-
manageable." Their leading spirit, the celebrated John Knox, was
an apostate priest, the measure of whose hypocritical spirit may be
estimated by the fact that, for seven years before his open defection,
while celebrating Mass almost daily, he was at the same time turn-
ing it into ridicule to his confidential friends in Geneva and Stras-
burg. Twice married, for the second time on the eve of sixty to a
girl of seventeen, he seems to have exceeded even the more advanced
Anglican reformers in the fanatical ferocity of his temper. **' With
the Bible in one hand and far more earthly instruments in the other.
He and his disciples," says Mr. Burke, marched through Scotland
proclaiming the principles of Calvin in their worst and most reckless
form. They acted in the spirit of Vandals, burning time-honored
churches and monasteries, with all the noble monuments of art and
learning which they contained. . . . Wherever Knox appeared,
the same scenes of violence and bloodshed announced his presence
and proclaimed his power. In the course of a few weeks innumer-
able religious edifices, including the Metropolitan Cathedral of St.
Andrews, and the Abbey of Scone, where from time immemorial the
Kings of Scotland had been crowned, were either irreparably dam-
aged or levelled with the ground."*
A recent Scotch Protestant historian remarks: " The great re-
former might boast with Attila that desolation followed on his track
whichever way he turned." f
* Burke's Historical Portraits.
f Hosack's " Mary Queen of Scots and Her Accusers." The true
character of John Knox was transparent at the time to minds un-
clouded by fanaticism and prejudice. That staunch Protestant Cecil,
in a letter to Sir Ralph Sadler, assures him that there was no man so.
abhorred by Elizabeth as the " gross minded Scotch Preacher, John
Knox." His disciples and friends, Lord Moray and Lord Lethington,
were disgusted and spoke in very forcible language against his un-
christian denunciations of the Catholics.
His work, " The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrbus
Regiment of Women," says Mr. Burke, " bears striking evidence of
being the production of a foul-mouthed unmanly fanatic." Elizabeth
swore " with a mighty big oath " he should never enter her realm.
In the constitution of the Church of Scotland, which was drawn up
54 THE GLOBE.
In ability, Mr. Froude acknowledges that Mary, Queen of Scots,
was at least the equal of Elizabeth. With regard to her general
character, it may be fairly said that it has never yet been investigated
in the clear light of simple justice, disentangled from political and
religious contentions, and it must, in truth, be conceded, that the
darkest charges that stain her memory were made at a time when she
was surrounded by powerful enemies, whose paths she crossed and
whose interests lay in her dishonor. It is at least suspicious that the
three letters, hitherto considered the most damning evidence of her
guilt, found in the mysterious casket, were written in the old Scot-
tish dialect, of which the Queen was ignorant,* and when such a
learned advocate of the Scotch Bar as Mr. Hosack, and still more re-
cently an American author, Mr. Melius — both Protestants — have
maintained the strong presumption of her innocence, it would seem
prudent to suspend one's judgment and await further investigation, f
under the influence of Knox, to celebrate Mass, or to hear it celebrated,
was made a capital offence. Of Knox's unqualified approval of the
murder of the ag-ed Cardinal Beaton, a Protestant historian, Mr.
Frazer Tytler, in his history of Scotland remarks: " The exultation
and unseasonable pleasure with which Knox relates the murder are
partly to be ascribed to the savag^e times in which he was bred, and
to the natural temper of this singular man, . . . that Knox considered
the deed as not only justifiable but almost praiseworthy, is evident
from the whole tone of his narrative. This mode of writing naturally
roused to the highest pitch the indignation of the Catholic party, and it
was received with equal reprobation by the more moderate Protest-
ants."
The judgment that John Wesley passes concerning Knox and his
doings, severe as it is, reflects throughout Wesley's well balanced mind
and practical piety.
See Life of Rev. John Wesley, late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxon,
by Rev. Tyerman.
* Burke.
f *' Writing to the Spanish ambassador, on the 30th of July, Moray
speaks of a letter of the Queen to Bothwell, planning the death of
Damley by poison or fire. It was afterwards sworn that the casket
seized on the 20th of June contained eight letters, but fire is not
mentioned. I>algleish on whose person the letters were said to be found
on the 20th of June was examined under torture on the 26th, but in
his examination the casket loas not spoken of. The existence of these
letters seems first to have been secretly divulged to the chiefs of the
party and to the Queen of England about the end of July. Throck-
morton writes on the 25th of July, " They boast of being able to prove
the Queen guilty of murder by the testimony of her own handwriting,
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 55
As a "body, the English Catholics were profoundly loyal to the
Throne. The intrigues and misconduct of individuals apart, the
great mass of the adherents of the ancient faith were content to live
in seclusion, in the hope that some change in the wheel of politics
might bring with it at least toleration. As Mr. Froude writes, " the
Catholics proper who had been persecuted, who had kept up the prac-
tice of their faith in foul weather and fair, had little confidence in
the Queen of Scots. They were willing to support her claim to the
succession, for they had no alternative ... yet they, too, had
their misgivings and uncertainties . . . and were beginning to
think that they had no refuge but in God,"* and it is an undeniable
fact that some of the greatest and best of the missionary priests never
meddled in politics,! but confined themselves strictly to their
spiritual duties.
Thomas E. H. Williams.
England.
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS.
Faith and Science. By Henry F. Brownson. Detroit, 1895.
Published by the Author.
The Jewish Law of Divorce. By David Werner Amram.
Philadelphia, 1896: Edward Stern & Co.
These two books are very characteristic of the two civilizations
out of which they have been evolved; that is, the Anglo- Western
American on the one hand, and the Hebrew-Philadelphia American
on the other. Mr. Brownson is a Western Yankee, son of a philos-
opher, etc., and Mr. Amram is a Philadelphia Jew. Both types of
men and both grades and kinds of work have been familiar to me for
the last thirty years, and I have written this review quite as much to
as also by sufficient witnesses. But no particulars were divulged before
the month of December, when a resolution was taken to accuse Mary
of adultery and murder. But no witnesses were ever produced." (Lin-
gard.) While by no means proving the total innocence of the Queen,
the case under these curious circumstances certainly fails to carry
conviction. See also De Quadras Despatches. Elizabethan State papers.
* Froude.
f For Protestant testimony to this, see article on Father Campion.
Chambers' Encyclopedia. Edited, 1888.
56 THE GLOBB.
point out the respective and relative excellences and defects of these
two civilizations as to indicate the respective excellences and defects
of the books named.
More than a year ago I began to write a review of Mr. Brownson's
book, but desisted because, after applying all the mental force I had,
I could not speak of the work with the unqualified approval that its
first pages inspired.
After reading Mr. Amram's book last September, it occurred to
me that it might be interesting to make one notice of the two books.
Life and history are both supremely fascinating by reason of their
striking contrasts, and the marked contrast of these two books is the
key to this notice.
The subjects, moreover, are closely allied. The one treats of ab-
stract philosophy, the other of applied philosophy; that is, of philos-
ophy battling for a working hypothesis in actual concrete life.
Both books and authors are alike reverent of the past, but the one
deals with the abstractions of ancient and modern philosophers,
while the other traces, with great accuracy and clearness, the legal ap-
plications of all past philosophy and revelation to the one question
which, of all others, in ancient or modem times, has had the most
important effects upon the status of every civilized society.
The author, in the first case, is a Western American Catholic
evolved out of New England liberal tendencies; the other, a Phila-
delphia Hebrew, as I said — and I may say at this point — that in
everything relating to literary finesse, lucidity of statement and
conclusiveness of argument, the Jew is infinitely the abler man of
the two.
Mr. Brownson labors under the misfortune of being the son of a
man whose reputation, by reason of his peculiar position in the ama-
teur literature, philosophy and moralizing verbiage of the last gen-
eration in this country, is at present very much over-estimated. Nat-
urally, we expect even more of the son than we have found in the
father; but in truth there is not the same swing or power.
A year ago 1 began my notice of Mr. Brownson's book as follows:
" It seems to me that the Church ought to be very proud of the
author of this book. It is so closely in touch with all that is worthy
in modem science, yet so clearly and profoundly Christian and Cath-
olic, 80 philosophical and logical, hence in harmony with the eternal
principles of God and Nature, that we all ought to further its circu-
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 57
lation and treat the writer of it as one of Heaven's newest gifts to
our generation.
The book has its faults; but what human being or thing has not?
The whole creation seems tainted. Notably our modern American
literature is tainted with many fallacies and imperfections. It either
considers itself divine, in spite of its absurdities, or, as in the case of
Mr. Brownson, incapable of being as divine as Plato and the Christ-
ian Fathers. Both are unfortunate extremes — the one of pride and
the other of morbid humility. But I consider Mr. Brownson's style
— or rather his lack of style — a greater fault than his beautiful hu-
mility.
In the first place, I was deeply impressed with what I will call the
height and dignity of Mr. Brownson's position, as expressed in the
following words from his " Prologue " :
" Our age has no great relish for the higher philosophical studies,
and apparently no great capacity to pursue them with any marked
success. Its authors seek popularity, and philosophical studies can
never be popular. Philosophy loses in depth and solidity just in
proportion as it is taken out of the schools and submitted to the
judgment of the multitude. The results of the profoundest philos-
ophy are needed by the people and may be given them; but never
can the people be so educated as to be able to follow and understand
the processes by which these results are obtained. In philosophy, as
in all the special sciences, the few must think for the many. The
democratic principle is not of universal application, and truth
and falsehood, any more than right and wrong cannot be settled by a
plurality of votes. The great want of the people, collectively as in-
dividually, is to be taught and governed."
This flies in the face of all our modern and popular humbuggery
of human equality, and must be especially distasteful to all the up-
start crews of men and women who, without any due preparation of
study or consecration of life to the higher studies of philosophy or
the higher duties of self-abnegation, presume to be the philosophical
and moral guides of this generation.
I refer here to Protestant preachers in general, and especially to
European and American Theosophists, Christian Scientists, etc.,
and above all to the numerous classes of female termagants — editors,
writers, preachers — all of whom had a great deal better be mending
stockings, nursing babies, etc., than parading their ignorant and
half-taught wiseacre asininity before an admiring world of boobies
still more ignorant than themselves.
58 THE GLOBE.
Again, I was much impressed with what I will call ^Mr. Brown-
son's two-fold view of progress, expressed as follows:
" That the human race, upon the whole, or taken in the entire
series of ages which it traverses, is progressive, advances towards
perfection, or the fulfillment of the divine purpose in its existence,
is undoubtedly tru'e, and it would be impious to question it; but not
all changes are for the better, and in particular ages and nations it
seems to decline and, so to speak, to march backwards, not forwards.
Nations fall as well as rise," etc.
And I said, here is a man and a Catholic, not wholly bound in
slavery, not wholly blinded by cant. But when he comes to limit the
possibilities of our age, as compared with earlier ages, I am not pre-
pared to agree with him. I quote again:
" This age could hardly produce the " Summa Contra Gentiles "
of St. Thomas, and that work, admirable as it is, is inferior to the
" De Civitate Dei " of St. Augustine. The mediaeval doctors are in-
ferior to the great fathers, and our theologians and philosophers are
inferior to the media3val doctors."
I am not at all sure of this. In fact, I seriously doubt alike the
truth and the wisdom of the statement. On the margin of Mr.
Brownson's volume I find written, as I was reading, and all of these
were inferior to the apostles of our Lord, especially to St. Paul; but
here we trespass on the dividing land between inspiration and philos-
ophy, and there is neither need nor time for this.
The work of inspiration is to proclaim a truth; the work of phi-
losophy is to explain all truth; rather a large undertaking and, in
truth, all philosophers have, up to date, found the business too
large for them.
Touching the work of Christian philosophy in our day, Mr.
Brownson is lucid and believable. He says:
" We are now back where the early fathers found themselves, so
far as concerns the great dispute we are engaged in, for the very
existence of revelation, as well as its harmony with reason, is the
great question of this age.
" We see in our colleges able, learned and pious professors who
devote their lives to teaching for the love of God and the good of
souls, and our young men, the pride of the land, on leaving collegfe
falling into contemporary rationalism and infidelity.
" To met the new want, the professor may need to be trained in a
department of thought which he has not hitherto been required to
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 59
master, a new branch of science, which I may call the Philosophy of
Keligion.
***********
" Our professors nearly all profess to follow St. Thomas, but the
difficulty is, that they are unable to agree among themselves as to
what is the philosophy St. Thomas actually taught. For myself, I
think, from the little I know of the works of the Angel of the
Schools, that there are problems in philosophy raised by modern
scepticism which they do not solve, nor even treat; but in all ques-
tions which they do treat I should seriously distrust my own judg-
ment if I found myself differing from their real sense; that is, as I
understand them."
These are among the passages that led to my enthusiastic wel-
come of this book, and I still think it a book that our Catholic and
Protestant professors of philosophy and our students of philosophy
would do well to read in their courses of study. Not that they will
be able to swear by all its teachings, but that it may serve to open
their eyes to the fact that it is well to be slow in swearing by any
man's philosophy anywhere — from St. Augustine and St. Thomas to
Archbishop Ireland or Cardinal Satolli.
Here we come to the pith of the author's actual philosophy, and
the quick mind very easily detects the loopholes and the possible
far flights of its feathers wide of any eternal law.
Having declared his belief that " St. Thomas was neither what in
these days is called an ontologist or a psychologist," and going on to
speak of " the Louvain professors, the real ontologists," he says:
" The Jesuits Fournier and Rothenflue, and others who hold that
the ens intuitively presented as the first and immediate object of
the intellect, is real being, not a mental conception. These, by mak-
ing ens their sole principle of philosophy, from which all existences
are to be logically deducible, are not able logically to escape pan-
theism. Nothing can be deduced logically from ens that does not
necessarily follow from it, or that is not necessarily contained in it,
for deduction is simply analysis, and the conclusion that does not
follow necessarily is invalid."
I will show directly that pantheism just as certainly follows from
Mr. Brownson's own definition. In view of just such philosophy aa
1^ here advocated I do not wonder that Thomas Paine, Thomas
Jefferson and Ben Franklin, and other political and commercial strip-
lings of American rebeldom concluded that all men are equal, and
that philosophers are mostly fools. Alas! "Who is to talk of what
60 THE OLOBE.
" necessarily and logically " follows from or can be deduced from
" ens " — that is, being — that is something which no finite human
mind has ever comprehended? Who is to talk of this intelligently,
logically, or in any way but the way of a chattering magpie — except
the essential essence of ens or being itself — many-voiced, with
tongues of flame and rays of the morning and songs of birds and sacri-
fices of God's eternal love?
Many years ago I used to think that I understood some of these
things^that is, some of the qualities to be deduced logically from
ens, or being; but for many years now I am inclined to laugh at the
utter presumption and folly of the wise men who have ever tackled
the problem.
Alas! At this age of the world, or at any moment of its existence
since the morning stars sang for joy and Adam took to jumping
fences instead of minding the farm, it is and has been presumptuous
folly for any human being to assert what could be or could not be
logically deduced from ens, or necessarily follow from it. And I
must point out here, as in another article in this Globe, that it is in
the assumptions and first premises of logicians and philosophers that
all their folly lies. Assume that any man can determine what can be
logically deduced from ens — or being — and you not only have the
key of the universe, but its explanation, and, having made this false
assumption, one philosopher deduces one thing from ens and another
another thing, till we have the muck heap of humbuggery called
philosophy — divine and undivine — from the days of Plato until now.
And while I do not pretend to know what human reason might have
deduced from ens — unaided by revelation — if there had not been a
devil somewhere, and a woman, and a fall, I say that in any state of
man since anything we know of him, it was utterly impossible for
any man of the race — unaided by revelation — to say what can be
logically deduced from ens, what ens is, or what our little ens rela-
tionship thereto is, or ever must be.
In a word, the primal bases of philosophy as indicated here by Mr.
Brownson and those he quotes — are mere bags of wind, and I have
never understood that they were especially reliable as bases for any-
thing.
Doubtless God is known, may be known, in or from His works!
St. Paul was clenr enough in his sight, but if we call God ens, and
assert what may be logically deduced from God or follow from him,
we are still whistling in thinner air and cannot even bag our wind.
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 61
In a word, on all these primal bases of philosophy, we are playing
with and placarding forces and phrases that we do not comprehend.
St. Augustine did not understand it. St. Thomas did not under-
stand it. The elder Brownson was moderately respectable and
forceful in modem literature of a certain kind, not because he was a
philosopher — he never was such — ^but because, after the gift of Cath-
olic faith came to him, he thundered and lightened — as well as a
mind twisted by foolish early theories could thunder and lighten —
in favor of the rational claims of Catholic faith. But these are not
at all dependent upon the schools or the schoolmen any more than
they are dependent on the temporal power of the Popes.
They rest simply on the historic basis of the character of Jesus
and of his palpable wisdom and his undying love for mankind.
Take all philosophy out of the last nineteen hundred years; give
me the simple teachings of Jesus and his immortal death, as interpre-
ted by St. Paul, and I will build you a church without philosophers,
whose snow-peaked, sunlit pinnacles shall pierce the stars. In a
word, the true Church has grown up independent of philosophy.
We make too much of philosophy — too much of the rhetorician,
too much of meaningless scholastic verbiage, and forget the -weightier
matters of the law, of justice and mercy, as these span all chasms
of the nations and alone bind the waiting heart of the world to truth
and to God.
If Satolli would read Carlyle more and Cicero less, he might be a
wiser man.
Nevertheless Mr. Brownson's book is praiseworthy, and as our
young men must study philosophy, so-called, and meet the shafts of
modern falsehood, it is well for them to have in hand a mentor so
much in touch with the spirit of our own age.
My especial objection to Mr. Brownson is found in his treatment
of what is called " Intuition, Intuitions," or " The Intuitions of the
Mind."
Here is one touch which needs questioning:
" We have intuition of God, or of perfect being, though we do not
usually advert to the fact, or take note of it."
I think it far more accurate to say, that some of us have a concept
— a conception — an idea of God or of perfect being, but that this
concept or idea is the result of ages of observation and careful reason-
ing on the part of our ancestors and ourselves. But an intuition, in
62 THE GLOBE.
any sense legitimate, to or in the English or any language, is sup-
posed to be a something or a some thought that the mind or soul has,
independent of observation and reasoning.
Notice how clear St. Paul is as compared with Brownson. " For the
invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, even His eternal power and divinity." But all this is supposed
to be seen by the civilized man on account of or by reason of his ob-
servation of the creation of the world — that is, by his reasonable ob-
servation of what we call the works of Nature or the natural world.
But Paul was a seer, and Mr. Brownson is only a philosopher, aiming
to establish a theory of intuition which will not hold water.
Nevertheless, Mr. Brownson constantly repeats this error — as fol-
lows:
" Necessary and absolute ideas cannot be abstractions formed by
the mind, because they are intuitively held."
" They are then not data from which the ontological is obtained
by a logical process, but are themselves the ontological intuitively af-
firmed."
Now why cannot necessary and absolute ideas be formed by the
mind or be revealed to the mind, or be evolved in the mind? To say
" because they are intuitively held," is simply to beg the question,
and to put Mr. Brownson's theory of intuition in place of all history
and reason.
The same error is repeated in other words in the second sentence
quoted, and its repetition is continued through whole paragraphs
and pages.
" But why is it that the mind, that reason, revolts at both atheism
and pantheism, and invariably, when contemplating particular ex-
istences, feels that they are insufficient for themselves, and asks and
seeks their cause? Why but because it intuitively perceives that
they are not necessary, independent, self-existent beings, but are
contingent, dependent existences, that have not their being or their
cause in themselves? If the mind had not intuition of them as
causatae, it would not and could not seek their cause or conceive of
them as caused; for conceptions, St. Thomas tells us, have their
foundation in reality and can be formed only from intuitions, or ob-
jects really presented in intuition. The category of cause is neces-
sary and indestructible, and, as it is not a necessary form either of
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 63
the object or of the subject, it must be intuitively given in the in-
tuition as the act of ens, producing or creating and sustaining con-
tingentia, or dependent existences. Hence the ontological and the
psychological in their synthesis, or real relation, according to which
the ontological causes, or creates, existences, are given in one and the
same intuition.
" That ideal intuition, or, rather the intuition of the ideal, em-
braces both in their real synthesis, or being and existences connected
by the creative act of being, I am well aware will not be universally
accepted; perhaps chiefly from my inability to make my meaning in-
telligible. Gentile philosophers had no conception of creation, and
hence they regarded the universe as an emanation of being, as gener-
ated by being, or as formed by intelligent force operating on a passive
and eternal matter as its stuff or material. Most modern philoso-
phers fail to recognize that the fact of creation is given in intuition,
and hence either remit it to theology as a fact of revelation, not of
philosophy, or attempt to obtain it by first establishing the con-
tingent character of particular existences. But this is because
philosophers have usually been more intent on analyzing conception
than intuition. Conceptions, in the language of modem ideas, may
be confused, inadequate, erroneous, even, but they always presup-
pose intuition, which alone presents, or places in the mind, the ob-
ject or concrete reality from which the mind forms its conceptions.
A failure to effect a perfect analysis of the contents of the intuition,
of course, will render inadequate or erroneous the conception. It
is precisely in the analysis of intuition, or thought, that philosophers,
in my judgment, have the most signally failed, and it is precisely
their defective analysis that I have been endeavoring to indicate and
rectify.
" All the principles of thought must be given intuitively, and
principles of thought must include the real, be identically the prin-
ciples of the real order, or the thought will be inadequate, unreal,
and science a failure; for all science is by thought, and can contain
no principle not presented in thought or intuition. If, then, the
creative act is not presented in the intuition, it cannot be included in
philosophy. We may have, as Cousin has well said, less in our
philosophy than is given in intuition, but we cannot have more;
and I may remark, by the way, that it is because it has less that
philosophy is so often found at loggerheads with common sense.
64 THB GLOBE.
Yet St. Thomas and all our philosophers attempt to prove the fact
of creation by our natural reason, or that contingent existences, all
things distinguishable from being, are produced and sustained by the
creative act of being from nothing, evincing thereby that they have
the conception of creation; but how can they have the conception if
the fact is not presented in intuition? "
I am inclined to answer Mr. Brownson's last query, Quaker fashion
and say: If the fact is presented in intuition, how absurd to talk of
the conception of it at all?
I think Mr. Brownson extremely unfortunate in his attempts to
marshal St. Thomas on the side of his Brownsonian notion.
I am going backward with the last paragraphs quoted. " Yet St.
Thomas and all our philosophers attempt to prove the fact of cre-
ation by our natural reason." But the conclusions of our natural
reason are the results of this reason applied to natural phenomena
through observation, through culture, through history, otherwise
our first parent — Adamic or Darwinian — would not have run to
hide in the bushes when the voice of the Eternal sounded in his recre-
ant ears. No, no! As far as I can see, St. Thomas agrees with St.
Paul — ^but not at all with Mr. Brownson.
" Again we touch St. Thomas: " Few conceptions, St. Thomas
tells us, have their foundation in reality." Verj' good. Here again St.
Thomas is clear as day; but when Mr. Brownson adds, " and can be
found only from intuitions, or objects really presented to the mind,"
he seems to me to confound St. Thomas with Brownson, and to con-
found intuition with real objects, and immensely confuses the reader.
To avoid the dilemma which I think must have presented itself to
his own mind in this reasoning, Mr. Brownson divides intuition into
ideal intuitions and empirical intuitions, and so aims to reconcile St.
Thomas, and God, and Nature with the elder Brownson and with
himself.
It would be an endless task to follow Mr. Brownson through all
these details. On reaching this portion of his book, still unwilling to
give up my original impulse of praising it with all my heart, I wrote
Mr. Brownson that to my mind he seemed confused and in error on
the whole question of intuition, and suggested that, if possible, he
would be a little more concrete in definition as to what he really
meant by an " intuition."
In substance, his reply was that an intuition was the mind stuff
out of which the mind was made; the divine element or elements in-
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS, 65
herent in the soul; those essentials of the God-head which we inher-
ited from our divine Creator, or, in the language of the Greek poet
as quoted by St. Paul, the ingredients or ingrediata of our very
being.
The language is mine, but I am trying to put Mr. Brownson's exact
thought in language to my mind more exact than his own. I
must confess that his concrete definitions of his own concept of
intuition or intuitions confounded and confused me more than all
his printed definitions and statements; and here is the point where,
were I trying to expose his weakness, I would undertake to show
that his own inherent concept is absolutely of a pantheistic nature,
not that I hint for a moment that he so understands it, for he is
abundantly earnest in his advocacy of the Catholic dogma of
creation.
I am absolute in my contention that we have no right to set up
a theory and then t^vist the English language into distractions to fit
our theory; but that we must take all the known facts of nature,
human history and revelation, and use the language in which we
speak in its normal sense to express our conception of the whole
combination.
Now if Mr. Brownson means by " ideal " or " empirical " intui-
tion, the mind-stuff out of which our souls and our reason are or
were formed, by creation or by evolution, then he shows an awful
lack of acumen in calling this mind-stuff intuition, for an intuition,
in every English sense of the word, is not an elemental essence, not
a primal ingredient, not a first principle or an ethereal spiritual sub-
stantia of the mind or soul of man, but an intellection, a sight, an
inherent natural evolution, or concept, or idea of the soul — already
compact of its eternal mind-stuff evolved or created by the eternal
Deity.
In a word the mind must be presupposed before it can have
an intuition. Hence I charge that Mr. Brownson's whole philos-
ophy on intuition is a refined contradiction of terms and an utter
confusion of all mind and problems of mind, of all creation and
of all history, and if the father thought like the son so much
the worse for the father, and frankly it was because I had to say this
or nothing, that I so long refrained from reviewing this book.
I do not think the elder Brownson worth considering as a philos-
opher, though I am full of quick admiration for him as a moral
VOL. VIL — 5.
66 THE GLOBE.
power in the midst of the trash called American literature in his
generation.
I consider Mr. H. J. Brownson's closing chapter on Faith and
Science one of the most valuable additions to modern Catholic
literature that this generation has produced; but let him refrain
from mental philosophy.
In fact, the whole American mind is a mere clodhopper in phi-
losophy; and for any American of Mr. Brownson's antecedents —
at last — gone West — to attempt a book on Philosophy, is much as if
Gibson, the New York cartoonist and newspaper sketcher, should
attempt to out-Raphael Raphael. Art and philosophy are in our
eyes as we are the inheritors of ages of its glory, but neither true art
nor true philosophy are at our finger-tips or on our tongues. We
are crude dreamers of still cruder dreams. From this western
mixture of involved philosophy and high moral enthusiasm one
turns with pleasure, still with regret, to Mr. Amram's explanation
of the Jewish law of divorce.
Here the subject is concrete — largely a question of written law
and its various interpretations, and Mr. Amram is lucid and full
on this phase of his subject, but the purpose I have in noticing the
book is to indicate that though a learned Hebrew lawyer of our day,
he fails in his comprehension of highest moral ideals precisely as Mr.
Brownson fails in the finer definitions of metaphysical detail. The
Jew is an accomplished fencer in the arena — ^say the Forum of legal
jurisprudence as it bears upon a moral question — and the western
lawyer — being a Christian — is an earnest pleader for what he be-
lieves to be orthodox philosophy and an ideal spiritual life.
Mr. Amram has the quiet finesse of four thousand years of racial
culture, and Mr. Brownson the enthusiasm of an amateur Amer-
ican thinker, dealing with a theme that no American has yet had
the head or the patience to study or comprehend. Even Mr. Am-
ram finds it difficult to state a proposition that shall serve as a
starting point for his discussion of a purely legal question; but
he has the acumen to detect the weakness of his own points and the
honesty to express his own defects — ^that is — as far as these relate to
purely legal points or definitions.
I can best explain by quotation as follows:
" The origins of law are to be found in the constitution of the
patriarchal family, and the fundamental principle of its govern-
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYERS. 67
ment was the absolute authority of the oldest male ascendant, who
was the lawgiver and the judge, and whose rule over his wives,
children, and slaves was supreme."
But this is conditioned as follows:
" It is true that there was a legal system and a social life anterior
to the patriarchal, and differing from it; but it has left no traces in
the Jewish divorce law."
I consider Mr. Amram's book a master-piece as far as it is a patient
elaboration of the first of these two brief paragraphs. The weak-
ness of the book, as I read it, is its ignoring or not sufficiently
recognizing and emphasizing the broader and deeper truth in-
volved in the second paragraph.
There had at least been an ideal starting of society previous to the
patriarchal as far as the question of marriage and divorce was con-
cerned.
Mr. Amram admits this; in fact quotes fully the Old Testament
record in confirmation as follows:
" It is commonly supposed that Moses permitted divorce because
of his people's hardness of heart; and that from the beginning
it was not so; that the pre-Mosaic law forbade divorce and did not
attempt to put asunder what God hath joined together. In sup-
port of this view the words of Genesis are quoted: " And the man
(Adam) said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
this shall be called Woman (Ishah) because out of Man (Ish) was
this one taken; therefore doth a man leave his father and his
mother and cleave unto his wife and they become one flesh." * But
it is an error to suppose that these high ethical conceptions of the
marriage relation were carried out in actual practice. Divorce was
and is a necessary evil, so considered in all civilized society. Theo-
retically, men have always agreed that the lofty sentiments ex-
pressed both in the Old and the New Testament constituted the
ideals that should govern a perfect marriage. But the practice of
men, as well, in the dim antiquity of the pre-Mosaic age as in the
eighteen hundred years since the establishment of Christianity, has
rcognized the necessity of divorce, while regretting its non-con-
formity with the ideals that should govern the marriage relation.
And, indeed, it will be observed on closer inspection that the say-
ings both of Hebrew and Christian moralists in condemnation of
divorce are directed not against the exercise of this right, but against
its abuse. Jesus himself felt obliged to recognize the validity of
divorce, although he confined it to cases of the wife's fornication, f
* Genesis ii. 23-24. t Matthew xlx. 9.
68 THE GLOBE,
The Jewish law recognized the validity of divorce in all cases, and
sought to prevent its abuse by moral injunction and judicial regula-
tion. The Old Testament, written at a time when the domestic
law of the patriarchal family was in full vigor, accepted divorce as
a matter of fact, as an institution that had existed since time im-
memorial. The modern law of all civilized states has recognized
divorce as a necessity; and it is a notorious fact that those states
which have unduly restricted the liberty of divorce have on record
a much greater proportion of sexual crime and immorality than
those that have adopted liberal divorce laws."
The first point of interest in this quotation is found in the ex-
pression " It is commonly supposed," etc. From this it would seem
that even from the Jewish consciousness the words of Jesus touch-
ing this matter have now become the common supposition of the
civilized world. This I take to be an unconscious testimony to the
inherent reason and power of those words; and it seems to me one
of the most lamentable facts of all human history that the very
people out of whom — according to the flesh and every human virtue
and power — Jesus was evolved, should so slur His words and so
blindly fail to recognize the God in him by reason of his words and
life.
As a matter of historic fact now believed by all the scholarship
of the Christian world, these words, that have since become the
" common supposition " of the civilized world, were a divine re-
iteration of the first compact of Eden which Mr. Amram quotes
almost in the next lines.
And when he says of the original divine institution of marriage
and of the palpable endorsement of this by Jesus, " But it is an
error to suppose that these high ethical conceptions of the marriage
relationship were carried out in actual practice," he begs the whole
question as a moralist or as an interpreter of moral injunctions of
the law of God and of Moses — shows, to my mind, most clearly and
most lamentably not only that he is morally blind but that his whole
race, having failed to perceive the divine light there was in Jesus,
has ceased individually and collectively to have any power as a moral
guide or teacher of the human race.
Nevertheless, these very expressions of the Philadelphia Hebrew
lawyer prove beyond question the divinity of the original institu-
tion of marriage according to the Eden story and that Jesus was
perfectly correct—I speak as a man of a man— when he said that
it was solely on account of the hardness of the aggregate Hebrew
TWO BOOKS BY TWO LAWYEES. 69
«
heart that Moses, finding it impossible to make ideal and loyal hus-
bands and wives out of them, granted them the privilege of divorce
for reasons never understood in the original institution and never
admitted as valid by the Son of God in His new interpretation of the
divine moral order for the government of this world.
I do not agree with Mr. Amram that two wrongs make one right,
or that divorce is a necessary evil. It is a crime against the moral
order of the human family, and the only reason that lawyers like Mr.
Amram and moralists like our New England and Dakota temperance
cranks are inclined to make divorce easy is that they have never
comprehended the divinity of meaning and the divine authority
of our Saviour's Avords, and have never attempted to live the ideal
life that his divine teachings command.
From a mere Pagan standpoint or from a renegade Hebrew stand-
point easy divorce may be granted as a necessary evil; but never,
while the world stands, from a Christian standpoint. In conclud-
ing my comments upon this part of Mr. Amram's book, I beg to
assure him that he is in error in stating that in States where the
liberty of divorce has been severely restricted there has ever been
a greater proportion of sexual crime. The statistics of the last two
hundred years covering all European and American states are a per-
fect refutation of his statement; and I must dismiss Mr. Amram as
a very incapable moralist, and a very unsatisfactory interpreter of
the power and meaning of the Eden of the Hebrew moral law.
On the Rabbinical law of divorce, however, or as interpreter of the
quasi-ecclesiastical and quasi-civil law of the Hebrews, based upon
the concessions of the Mosaic law, Mr. Amram is certainly the best
guide I have ever found, and had this article not already grown to
undue proportions, I shoudl like to trace point by point the excellent
work he has done in this line.
Those especially interested, however, may procure the book and
peruse it for its own sake.
That the patriarchal and the Mosaic systems, by reason of sexual
and other corruptions had sadly overridden the original moral
teachings of God on this and on every other point of morals when
Jesus came, goes without saying. There would have been no need
of his coming if the Hebrew race, as such, had lived up to the ideals
of the divine law and so had become the moral and spiritual instead
of the usurious leaders of the human race.
70 THE GLOBE.
It was because of their hair-splitting paring-down of the moral
law and their hair-splitting insistence upon the cerimonial law as a
substitute for morals that God was obliged, so to speak, to become
incarnate in Jesus and so found a new centre of moral light and a
new inspiration toward it in our poor world.
In truth, it is this tragedy of the divine incarnation through the
poverty and the chastity of our race that the Hebrew has never
gotten hold of. Few Christians seem to comprehend it, and nearly
all our modern social, commercial, and political life is built up,
interpreted, and criticised as if this most stupendous fact possible
in all the ages of eternity had, in reality, not taken place, and as if
its eternal meanings and lessons were not eternally binding on all
our lives. In the eyes of all true morality easy divorce is a greater
evil, a greater crime than adultery or polygamy, and my lesson for
Mr. Amram, as well as for all Hebrew and all so-called Christian
readers of this article, is that they study more carefully the divine
teachings of Jesus, and dwell less upon the pettifogger Hebrews
of the past or the Paganized Christian pettifoggers and other teachers
of our day. The True Church is a sure guide in this as in all ques-
tions of faith and morals, and its teachings are yea and amen in exact
accord with those of Jesus, the new Moral Master of the world.
William Henry Thorne.
TO A HUMAN SKULL
Fair dome of dust sublimely planned and wrought,
But late the tenement of some sad soul,
Sheltering the dreams and hopes that ever roll
Kesistless as the ocean, thought on thought,
With sweet perpetual moan divinely fraught.
Speeding afar to some ethereal goal;
How humbly now thou seek'st one only dole,
A grave to wean thy ruin into naught.
Ah, nothingness is thy one fittest sphere.
Poor vain imposter, death's fort)idding sigh.
Thy walls are but a charnel house for fear
To ponder on. The soul is never thine.
And scorns the petty bulwark thou dost rear
'Twixt yearning man and God's high will benign.
Charles A. Keeler.
Berkeley, Cal,
AN EDITOR-a LOGIC IS NEW LIGHT. 71
AN EDITOR'S LOGIC IN NEW LIGHT.
During the early days of this year I was much interested in and
amused with a discussion in Logic between The Review, St. Louis,
and the Opinion PuUique, of Worcester, Massachusetts.
It reminds one of old times to have the syllogism applied to
passing events, but the trouble of it all is, now as of old, that in
forming the major premise of any syllogism the author is sure to do
his work with an eye looking north-north-east to his conclusion,
and that this bias alone, not to speak of the million-fold slippery
data underlying all human assumptions and syllogisms bearing
upon delicate moral or mental phenomena, is pretty sure to make
the entire circle of his reasoning a flimsy tissue of insubstantial,
dreamy inaccuracies.
In truth I have often thought that a good, honest and capable
doubter, like Carlyle or Emerson, could not have employed his life
better than in picking to pieces the major premises of all the great
logical philosophers from St. Thomas to Herbert Spencer. For
my own part I would not hesitate — if properly paid for my time —
to shatter any and all the major premises of all the great philoso-
phers from Plato to Cardinal Satolli, and to show therefrom how
illogical and unreliable a thing is the much lauded logical syllogism.
Life is too short, however, for such futile undertakings. By and
bye the logicians and their logic run against some Saul of Tarsus,
some Galileo, some Edison, with a flame of inspiration, a heavenly
star, or a little quick, common horse sense, flaming in his eyes, and
the logic of ages scampers to the winds.
Let us look for a moment at Editor Preuss's latest syllogism. The
Review, of December 24th, 1896, says:
" This was our syllogism:
Every agitation set up by a Catholic in violation of the law of the
Church and apt to create scandal, is — to express it charitably — in-
considerate and unfortunate.
Now, the agitation of Mr. St. Laurent, by his brochures, is in
violation of the laws of the Church, and apt to cause scandal;
Therefore, this agitation is inconsiderate and unfortunate."
Mr. Preuss is a very bright young gentleman. I consider him far
and away the ablest editor at present engaged upon the regular
72 THE GLOBE.
Catholic Journalism of America. Personally, also, I have a very
high esteem for him, but, as a friend and a much older man, I ear-
nestly advise him to steer clear of the syllogism in the future. It fits
but poorly into the democratic and infinitely varied thought of our
day. Itisa worn-out fad, like esoteric Buddhism.
I do not intend to follow the controversy hinted at in this
syllogism. I do not intend to give or take any account of the reply
of the Opinion Puhliqne. The latter paper is very wide awake and
able to take care of itself, nor do I intend to go further into the
merits, pro or con, of Mr. St. Laurent's contention with the New Eng-
land prelates.
From him and from other New England priests, of different
races, I have clear and grateful testimony. First, to the effect that
the notice taken of this contention in the Globe Eeview won
many able champions to the cause of the priests as against their
alleged oppressors; second, that the oppressions themselves have
been already greatly modified because of the articles published in
the Globe Review, and as the gratitude expressed to me for this is
far beyond any consciousness of desert on my part, and as this in-
fluence for good was the sole object aimed at by me, I had intended
to quit the case without further reference to it one way or the other.
But when a fire is started there is no telling whose garments may
take fire.
Mr. Preuss's syllogism, however, is so funny, so provokingly funny
that I am moved to touch the contention again — briefly, from his
point of view.
It seems to me that a Catholic Christian editor — himself deeply
and avowedly impressed with the fact that grave and numerous in-
stances of unlawful tyranny had been exercised by various New
England prelates toward their French Canadian and other priests,
might have found better use for his clear head and able pen than
in the useless and fossil work of framing syllogisms against the
young priest who risked so much in a final effort to correct the
abuses very generally admitted to exist.
I am not here defending Mr. St. Laurent. I sincerely hope that he
will not publish any more pamphlets on the subject here under
review. I am simply calling attention to Mr. Preuss's mighty
syllogism. Why go about in such a logical, sober, and effete man-
ner to destroy Mr. St. Laurent, instead of using such logic or other
faculty as you may have to destroy the vices, tyrannies, and unlaw-
AN EDITOR'S LOOIG IN NEW LIGHT. 73
ful actions that made Mr. Laurent and his unhappy pamphlets a
burning necessity?
Why not lay your little hatchet at the root of the upas tree of un-
lawful t}Tanny, Mr. Preuss, and not go chopping away at the already
suffering and sensitive nerves of the brave man who dared to beard
the august Yankee Catholic lions in their own dens?
Seriously — which was the more unlawful and the greater evil — the
fearful tyranny complained of by Mr. Laurent and others, or his
suffering complaint of that tyranny?
I am not saying that there is any evil in Mr. Laurent's complaint.
I am very sorry that his work had to be done; but I have not the
slightest doubt that the work itself was necessary, and if an evil, then
a necessary evil — like all the sufferings of the atonement made neces-
sary by the fall. In a word, the sufferers had turned both cheeks to
their smiters until they were weary and simply had to smite back in
return.
To me the facts that forced Mr. Laurent to " set up this agitation,"
are so palpable, so sad, so uncatholic, unchristian, unlawful, and pro-
voking in their tyranny that my whole concern has been and still
is how best to change the facts and modify the tyranny, not how to
pick holes in the broken English or cut slits in the quivering nerves
of the French Canadian priest who first dared the undertaking.
This is simply a comment on what seems to me the unwisdom and
the uncharitableness of Mr. Preuss's entire " logical " proceeding. In
a word, it seems to me that he ought to have saved his shot for the
wild bears and not to have used it at all on their huntsman.
Now a word as to the dear syllogism itself. Let us change it a
little and see how it kills two birds with one stone, or sails two ways
with the same wind. Here is the wonderous syllogism with a new
subject, and the same conclusion:
" Every agitation set up by a Catholic in violation of the law of the
Church and apt to create scandal, is — to put it charitably — ^incon-
siderate and unfortunate."
Now, the agitation set up, created by the tyrannies of the New
England prelates, is in violation of the laws of the Church, and very
apt to cause scandal;
Therefore, this agitation was and remains inconsiderate and un-
fortunate.
To put it charitably we might add very unfortunate.
74 THE GLOBE.
I believe Cardinal Satolli is considered a great logician. I com-
mend this new setting of the syllogism to Mr. Preuss and ask him
to put it unto good Ciceronic Italian or Latin or into French and send
it to Cardinal Satolli or to Mgr. Martinelli with my love, and I have
no doubt that the New England tyrannies will vanish like mists be-
fore the rising sun.
William Henry Thorne.
AS PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS.
As Phryne, at Eleusis, laid aside
Her garments, and let fall her sweet warm hair,
Before the populace mutely gathered there —
Then sought, waist-deep, the cool sea's foam-flecked tide,
That stern Poseidon might be satisfied.
And great Apelles greater honors wear,
And Aphrodite live, supremely fair,
The poet's ecstasy — the painter's pride; —
So, should I put this mortal garb away.
And stand, heaven-viewed, in Love's resplendent sea,
Wouldst thou on memory's canvas fix my soul?
For that which thou didst love in earth's brief day —
Form, features, and glad life, shall wait for thee
Where time's tossed billows neither strive nor roll.
A. T. SCHUMAN.
Gardiner. Maine.
QUAY VERSUS WANAMAKER & CO.
From the days of William Penn, Gent., to John Wanamaker,
shop-keeper, the politico-social life of Pennsylvania has been as
varied as its mountain and farm land scenery, though never half so
beautiful.
William Penn, himself, was a strange mixture of pious cant and
of shrewd, beaver-like, business cuteness, but without any suffi-
cient executive ability, and his surviving sons were simply upstart
fools. Strange to say, John Wanamaker is very closely imitating or
repeating William Penn's career, only the modern shopman has more
executive ability in a day than Penn ever had in a year.
QUAY VERSUS WANAMAKER & GO, 75
But the times have changed, and things have gotten strangely
mixed in Pennsylvania and elsewhere during the last two hundred
and twenty-five years. Shrewdness has increased and principle de-
creased, and the gifts, in grants of land, and in political " honors "
are no longer to the pious or to gentlemen, but to the men whose
slavish shrewdness will enable them to serve the rich and deceive the
poor, and all for the glory of this great Republic.
Of the two, I hold Senator Quay, of Pennsylvania, a much shrewder
and smarter man than shop-keeper Wanamaker — and as to real piety
or principle it is a question of the toss of a copper between them. In
the language of Mark Anthony, they are both honorable men, and
it is well known all over the country that during the first week in
January of this year they were in a sort of life and death struggle
for a seat in the United States Senate — to succeed the Cuban Scare-
crow-Cameron— who had grown alike weary of the honors and the
work of the position.
Wanamaker wanted the seat and the honors for himself, and Quay
wanted the place for his henchman — State Senator Penrose. There
was lots of fun in the campaign and, of course, Wanamaker was
beaten, and I repeat here what I stated in No. 11 of this Review
that Wanamaker has never undertaken a contest with any man of
respectable ability, or with any corporation of corresponding means
to his own, but he has been shamefully beaten, and it will continue
thus till the end of his career, unless he makes a clean breast of some
fearful blunders he has made and so takes the American people into
his confidence. Meanwhile he can continue to control numberless
sweat-shops and squeeze the life blood out of numberless young lady
employes at the rate of $4.50 a week — less various taxations. It was
perfectly clear to me from the first that Wanamaker would be beaten
in the contest named, and I so declared in advance to every man in
Philadelphia and New York who spoke with me on the subject.
I take the matter up in the Globe, first, because, though compara-
tively a local contest, its bearings and relationships are national and
world-wide; second, because of the attitude taken, in the main, by
Philadelphia and New York newspapers in connection with the con-
test; third, because of the sharpness of the contest between the so-
called business men's interests and preferences as compared \vith the
politicians' interests and preferences, as ably defined by Senator Quay
himself. In fact, these last two points are what constitute the con-
test's far-reachincr interests.
76 THE GLOBE.
As individuals neither Quay nor Wanamaker is of sufficient impor-
tance to demand discussion outside of political bar-rooms and Sun-
day-school fairs, but as Quay is the political boss of the great State of
Pennsylvania, and as Wanamaker is, perhaps, the sharpest shop-
keeper in America — embracing in this latter definition all his Sun-
day-school work — a contest between these two representative Amer-
icans for the control of a seat in the United States Senate is of in-
terest to the whole American people.
During the campaign some man by the name of Pollock — I am not
sure but it was old ex-Governor Pollock of Pennsylvania, though I
thought the old horn-tooter dead long ago — said of Wanamaker — ^in
a speech delivered at Wilkesbarre, Pa. — that he was the greatest man
on earth. Had this estimate been true it would have been enough
to defeat Wanamaker in Pennsylvania. For, in that State they have
long since ceased to regard any elements of true greatness as consti-
tuting any man's claim to honors.
In truth, outside of his special shrewdness in buying of the sweat-
shop-squeezers vast lots of goods at abnormally low figures and
selling them at correspondingly high figures — to accommodate the
public, and employing all sorts and varieties of clerks and sales-
women and girls at fearfully low wages — Wanamaker is one of the
most ignorant and incompetent of all the incompetent place-seekers
and place-holders now before the American public.
Beginning as errand boy and under-clerk in the once famous Ben-
nett's Tower-Hall clothing store in Philadelphia, about forty-two
years ago, and by reason of his remarkable piety — jumping from this
position to the secretaryship of the Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. about
40 years ago — and by marrying a little money and taking his wife's
brother into partnership with a little more money — Wanamaker
started for himself in the clothing business at the old clothing comer
of Sixth and Market, Philadelphia, about 38 years ago.
Piety had paved the way and with the small capital thus furnished
Wanamaker was not only a success from the start, but he has pulled
together any number of half incompetents and made them all small
successes also. I am not here speaking of the much larger numbers
he is said to have wrecked utterly. I am giving the devil his due.
And he has been most successful as a Sunday-school superintendent,
but here the story of ability and prosperity absolutely ends.
He is said to have purchased his position of Postmaster General in
QUAY VERSUS WANAMAKEE & CO, 77
Harrison's tea-party cabinet with a contribution of $125,000 to the
Harrison Campaign fund, and his administration of the position —
not to speak of his fearful connection \vith the Philadelphia Key-
stone Bank failure during his term of office — was a miserable failure.
It is well understood that he chipped in liberally toward the $18,-
000,000, by means of which Hanna is said to have bought McKinley's
election; but John is a shrewd man — " on pure business principles "
— and as he was after the United States Senatorship this time and
knew that the Pennsylvania Legislature had to be bought individu-
ally, and at a high figure, in order to serve him, he saved the larger
charity of his pious purse for the purchasing of the United States
Senatorship, via the Pennsylvania legislature. But the flimsy shop-
keeper— now brought face to face with men, and no longer with shop
girls, or with clowns like Pollock — could not even do this little feat
— not when he had the newspapers of Philadelphia and New York,
and the " pure business men's movement " in Philadelphia all to help
him.
In truth, the utter impotence of this shopkeeper — that is, in any
matters outside of his shopkeeping, and wherein he has to contend
with other men of mere average ability — is so palpable that one
wonders why he does not simply buy what honors or blood or respec-
tability he can buy in the open market, for money, and cease all other
kinds of struggle.
In the present instance the newspapers of Philadelphia and New
York were not averse to an increase of the usual holiday Wanamaker
advertising, and there was the other excuse for their advocating
Wanamaker, viz., that the Business men's movement was in favor of
Wanamaker. Advertising is a purely legitimate business. The news-
paper nabobs flourish on it, and naturally they are in sympathy with
Wanamaker and the business men in politics, and they are all honor-
able men.
Yet in spite of all this Wanamaker was defeated, and Penrose — ^a
mere henchman of Quay's — whom nobody knows or cares for, that
is worth caring for, was elected by the august Legislature of Penn-
sylvania to succeed Don Cameron — whose place was bought for him
by his father — as Senator of the United States. Shades of Cicero
and Dan Webster, not to speak of Billy Penn — what are we coming
to and where are we at?
As a matter of straight reply to this question — we are coming to
78 THE GLOBE.
Matthew Stanley Quay — ex-trickster of the Pennsylvania Legislature
— ex-henchman of the Camerons, now Senator of the United States —
ex-candidate for the Presidency of the United States and Boss of the
Republican voters of Pennsylvania. I beg that my Republican
friends in Pennsylvania will not take this as a slur — I myself would
infinitely prefer Quay to Harrity. It is a choice of two evils and very
contemptible evils at that.
Nevertheless, I have no sympathy with the newspapers now against
Quay and in favor of Wanamaker. In truth, stupid and unknown
as is Senator Penrose, he will prove a more desirable United States
Senator than Wanamaker ever could have proven himself. But we
were speaking of Quay and the newspapers.
The only newspaper man in Philadelphia who knows all of Quay's
vices and virtues from the Senator's first squeal to his last, is Col. Mc-
Clure of the Philadelphia Times. Chas. Emory Smith, of the Phil-
adelphia Press, is comparatively new to Pennsylvania politics. Col.
Lambert, Smith's henchman, is too young and too drastic a man to
be intrusted with the true inwardness of things. Davis, of the Ledger,
never knew anything properly, but how his clothes fitted! Singerly,
of the Record, is simply a newspaper adventurer — without knowledge
or influence. And why all this? Simply to remind you that a look
at the files of the Philadelphia newspapers during the recent Wana-
maker-Quay contest will show you that McClure's Times, the only
brainy paper in Philadelphia, while in favor of Wanamaker — as the
business men's candidate and as a great advertiser — certainly the busi-
ness end of the paper would insist on so much — still the Times as an
editorial entity was as non-committal as it could possibly be — in fact,
was at heart in favor of Quay.
McClure knows the inside facts of the lives of both these stainless
gentlemen, and it being a choice of rogues, the Times chose the
larger rogue, but it knew all the whil^ that Wanamaker would not
and could not win. So did Quay — so did the very members of the
Pennsylvania legislature that encouraged the shopkeeper to run for
Senator — but, as it was all in the party, why not let John spend all
the money he wanted? Would it not all work good for the party?
Would not the party get his cash and its own candidate in the bar-
gain?
Oh! John, but thou art an eternal phool. No brother of mine,
if you please; hence no scriptural danger.
QUAY VERSUS WANAMAKER & CO. 79
In truth I despise the newspapers for siding with John — just as
much as I despise John for his foolish ambition and for his being
fooled.
To judge from the newspaper denunciations of Quay and their
wild exaltation of the immaculate saint of Bethany Sunday school,
the uninitiated might suppose that Quay was a greater rascal than
Wanamaker and less worthy of being boss of Pennsylvania.
Let me correct this notion. Quay is the son of a Presbyterian
clergyman, thus betraying a certain stage of culture and accom-
pUshment of parentage. John Wanamaker is the son of a brick-
maker, and there never was any character or culture within sight of
the Wanamaker blood.
From being a person somewhat addicted to trickery and whisky,
Quay has risen, through temperance and a close adherence of fidelity
to friendships and political duties, to the Senatorship of the United
States, and the Boss-ship of Pennsylvania; while Wanamaker has
simply risen through sweat-shop methods to the ignorant and
dastardly mastership of such vanity as the low-bred millionaire is apt
to feel. Of the two I consider Quay not only the smarter but infi-
nitely the better bred and the more moral man.
Again, Wanamaker is a booby in politics, not to speak of states-
manship, but Quay has risen through the petty despicabihties of
politics to some grasp of statesmanship, and to prove this I here
quote some of his recent utterances and point out their value.
The posings and pretensions of the so-called Business men's move-
ment in Philadelphia inspired Senator Quay to make these ut-
terances, among others:
" I am opposed to the entire scheme of the National Business
Men's League, as disclosed by Mr. Dolan. Its basic theory is that
organized wealth shall dictate high office, and so take possession of
the Government. It will be met as stubbornly and overthrown as dis-
astrously as was Bryanism. Bryan invoked the masses against the
classes. The promoters of this league invoke a class against the
masses and all other classes. No league of business men, or other
men, based upon wealth or other foundation, can erect a governing
class in this country. In the United States Senate we have million-
aires and business men enough to serve all legitimate purposes.
Senators are needed who have no specialties, but who will act for the
interests of the country in gross without special affinities. There
must be less business and more principle in our politics, else the
Republican party and the country will go to wreck. The business
issues are making our politics sordid and corrupt. The tremendous
80 THE GLOBE.
Bums of money furnished by business men, reluctantly in most in-
stances, are polluting the well-springs of our national being."
It is not necessary to lay any stress upon the fact that Senator
Quay is perfectly familiar with the methods of so-called business
men in politics.
He is old enough to remember the Hon. Simon Cameron's business
methods during our civil war. He knows exactly to what extent the
business men of Philadelphia have manipulated the Legislature of
Pennsylvania during the last quarter of a century. He knows just
exactly how much money Wanamaker and other business men of
Philadelphia contributed toward Harrison's election in 1892, and
just why they made these contributions — from pure patriotism and
sheer moral benevolence of course. He also knows just how much of
Hanna's $18,000,000 contributed by business men — from pure patri-
otic and business motives — was spent on Bourke Cockran and other
mouthing and renegade public clowns to secure the election of Mc-
Kinley last year, and I consider his testimony to the effect that this
nation is being driven to wreck by such methods of infinitely more
force and value than all the hireling and vituperative editorials and
sermons that have been written and preached on this theme during
the last twenty years.
Nor does it detract from the value of this testimony one iota to
state or to emphasize the admitted fact — that Quay has been as cor-
rupt as the worst of his cronies, or that his statement was made in the
heat of a political campaign wherein his own power and prowess were
being tested. Quay knew what he said and meant it.
Let the Belmonts and the Wanamakers put this little weed in their
pious pipes and smoke it. It will do them good. They may even
learn from it that in their next grasping after purchased political
control they are liable to be broken on the wheel, and that, too, by
a powerful party in the United States Senate.
There is still another and an interesting view to be taken of the
present pretentions of American business men in politics.
It is simply the contemptible and presumptuous folly of fools to as-
sume for a moment that the average morality of the average methods
of the average business men of our time is purer, more exalted, or
less corrupt than the average methods of average politicians.
There are individual business men in all parts of the country
whose methods are far above those of the average politician, and
there are politicians — with cravings for pure statesmanship — whose
QUAT VERSUS WANAMAKER & GO, 81
methods are far superior to those of the average business man, but it
is not safe for the kettle to call the crock " black head " in this or in
any other division or diversion of our garbage carts. Our politics
are corrupt and our business is corrupt. Let the business man mind
his own business and improve its methods all that is in his power,
and let the politician mind his business and bring it to the level of
statesmanship as far as he has any impulse toward good or any power
with his fellow men.
But to set Wanamaker up as the idol of the pure methods of busi-
ness men, and as an ideal instructor in the needed purities of politics,
is so everlastingly absurd that I do not wonder Senator Quay lifted
his voice in protest. In truth, Quay knows Wanamaker well enough
to despise him.
That Quay himself, from whatever motives, is striving to look at
our national questions in a national way — not wholly born of the
blind mole tariff motives of the average Pennsylvanian — is evident
from many of his recent utterances. He has evidently read a little
outside the newspapers. He has also travelled, and made observa-
tions. He plainly sees that this great continent as to its public road-
ways, water-ways, etc., is only one-fourth civilized, and sees that a
truly national spirit in our government not only would but will,
sooner or later, take hold of this great business, and by so doing make
itself the idol of our entire people. Perhaps he is squinting toward
such idolship on his own account. Be that as it may, he is at once
patriotic, statesman-like, and aggressive in a truly American sense,
in the paragraph I have quoted, as in other utterances of his in the
Senate, and for my own part I am a thorough believer in the phi-
losophy— " the tools to him who can use them."
Nobody expects any statesmanship from McKinley— the little
major was not built that way, nor is he likely to put men in power —
at Hanna's bidding — who will know or care anything about states-
manship. It is an administration for revenue onlj^, and must fight
it out on that line.
I am no more in sjnnpathy with Quay's notions on the tariff than
I am with his silly misrepresentation of Mr. Bryan, but I believe in
giving even a devil like Quay, his due.
Plainly the much fooled people of the Keystone State agree with
me to this extent — for with the whole combine of the saints and the
business men's leagues of his State against him he not only whipped
VOL. VII. — 6.
82 THE OLOBE.
Wanamaker & Co., but whipped them when he had only a little in-
significant pen-rose to fight with and to fight for.
Such a man is not to be sneezed at by the prophets of the press, who
have grown so used to worshipping the golden calf that they no
longer understand the merits or the fore and aft capacities of a well
trained mule.
Of Senator-elect Penrose, it may be well not to prophesy too
severely. Twenty years ago Quay was a mere tool of the Camerons,
and nobody ever dreamed that he would develop the executive ability
or the good and comprehensive sense he has shown during the last
ten years.
Twenty-five years ago Boss Piatt, of New York, was simply the
poodle pup, " me to " Piatt, or lackey of Senator Conkling, and
Conkling himself — with all liis posings and scandals — ^^vas hardly
more than a rhetorical shadow of Seward, and Tilden, and Seymour
as a representative of the statesmanship of the Empire State. But
even Piatt has become a great man — God save the mark — and now
we have fallen into the hands of such figures as Roosevelt and Mott.
Surely, then, there is a chance for a gentleman like Penrose.
It is perfectly silly for New York editors to write as if Pennsyl-
vania under Quay's bossism had lost the priceless boon of self-govern-
ment any more than the same priceless boon or boom has been lost
in New York. For more than a generation we have been governed
by oligarchs and their political trickster slaves. It is the same in
Maine, Texas, California, and in all the States of the Union, only in
one State one kind of fad and one kind of trickster controls, and in
another State another kind.
I must not, however, go into the subject of our general imbecility
or our general tyranny. The subject is too large and too despicable.
The object of this article is to point out, by means of a few salient
facts, that men of the Wanamaker stripe, and I include such implings
as Roosevelt in the Wanamaker gang — are utterly unfit for any pub-
lic trusts, not to say unutterably incapable of statesmanship, and that
if we must be bossed by gentlemen like Quay or plebeian millionaires
like Wanamaker, in God's name let us choose the Quays until we
can do better. Finally, that we cannot do better until the average
character of the nation is swayed by more genuine morality and more
pure religion in the sense that recognizes and respects the rights and
consciences of their fellow men.
William Henry Thobne.
I!fA COOLBRITB'S POEMS. 83
INA COOLBRITH'S POEMS.
SONGS FROM THE GOLDEN GATE.
A NEW edition of Miss Coolbrith's poems has been recently pub-
lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. The volume is dedicated
to Edmund Clarence Stedman and contains four illustrations by
William Keith, the California artist.
The first edition of Miss Coolbrith's poems was published by sub-
scription in San Francisco about fifteen years ago. The present
collection includes the original edition entire, with thirty-six addi-
tional pieces.
For many weary years the English-speaking portion of the globe
has been flooded with verse in newspapers, magazines, and books.
Of all the diseases that attack humanity the mania for writing
poetry is the most insidious, most universal, and most incurable. It
yields to no treatment. Its victims comprise both sexes.
It is independent of all conditions that are known to modify other
maladies. Some organisms can successfully resist even the approach
of the most deadly epidemic, but the individual who at some period
of his pilgrimage has not cherished the delusion that he could write
poetry is, if not the noblest, at least the rarest work of God.
A capable critic may be as rare an apparition as a genuine poet,
yet there are some who can discern poetry from pottery, though they
may lack the faculty to write a single stanza of true poetry.
In " Songs from the Golden Gate " we clearly recognize a genuine
poet, nay, we discover in this modest little volume more true poetry
than can be found in the works of any American poet, living or dead.
The heart from which these songs have come must have lain very
close to the Great Heart of the Universe. The touch is so light, the
music so sad, so soft, and so sweet, that its origin is unmistakable.
!N"ature once more speaks here at first-hand, and her speech is none
the less persuasive that it flows from a woman's lips.
No woman-poet, indeed, has succeeded in putting so much fem-
inine softness and delicacy into her work as Miss Coolbrith.
This characteristic constitutes no small portion of her charm and
her power.
84 THE GLOBE,
Like every book worth reading, " Songs from the Golden Gate ''
cannot be accurately estimated from one or two selections. Every-
thing in the book, from the graceful and charming address to the
world-poets in the beginning to the last word directed to the author's
dead mother, is worthy of study and perusal.
We quote these few lines:
"beside the dead."
It must be sweet, O Thou my^ dead, to lie
With hands that folded are from every task;
Sealed with the seal of the Great Mystery,
The lips that nothing answer, nothing ask,
The life-long struggle ended, ended quite.
The weariness of patience and of pain.
And the eyes closed to open not again
On desolate dawn or dreariness of night.
It must be sweet to slumber and forget,
To have the poor tired heart go still at last,
Done with all yearning, done with all regret.
Doubt, fear, hope, sorrow, all for ever past.
Past all the hours or Slow of wing or fleet.
It must be sweet, it must be very sweet.
In the whole range of English poetry, there is little to equal and
nothing to surpass this exquisite sonnet, for true poetic insight, for
artistic finish and polish of style. So long as hearts are moved by
English speech, and brains think in that tongue, " Songs from the
Golden Gate " will keep their power over those in each generation
who have either hearts or brains.
The Califomian, like the Latin lyrist, may feel assured that the
best part of her will never die.
M. J. Whyte.
Sonoma, CcU.
MARRIAGE VOWS AND OTHERS.
During the past year quite a number of the eastern secular papers
and several Catholic weeklies gave prominence to various accounts
of a so-called Catholic lady who had chosen to live apart from her
husband and to devote her life to the " high ideal " of looking after
MARRIAGE VOWS AND OTHERS. 85
certain supposed cancer patients in one of the undesirable sections
of the east side of New York City.
As far as I have any reliable knowledge of the case this lady simply
deserted her husband — perhaps in pique, inspired by some transcen-
dental ideal of moral heroism — but that is none of my business, and
is not pertinent to the lesson I have to teach in this case. That she
deserted her husband — took sudden leave without his consent, and by
so doing gave him infinite pain, chagrin, and misery, I have the best
of reasons for knowing, and that she visited Canada either with a
view of becoming a religious or of training with nuns for her high
vocation of nursing cancer patients, is also well known. That she did
not and could not become a nun under the circumstances, every-
body that knows anything of the seriousness that the Church at-
taches to marriage vows perfectly understands. That she did come
to New York, fell sick in her work, and was paraded in New York
papers as something of a heroine, is also beyond question.
Had I been editor of a daily paper in New York at the time, I
would have presented her case as in no way heroic, but as insuffer-
ably and unpardonably wilful and sinful, and I did not take up the
case in the December, 1896, Globe Review simply because I did not
wish to lacerate the feelings of the outraged husband. But it seems
to me that the matter is so pregnant with the conceit of so-called
moral ideals on the one side and the wisdom of the Church on the
other, that without mentioning any names some pertinent truths
can be pointed from it that this age needs to know and to emphasize.
In the first place, had this lady or her New England ancestors of
supposed high moral and other culture ever truly learned the simplest
principles of true morality, she and they would have known that to
desert one sacred duty in order to take up another supposed duty, no
matter how attractive its self-sacrificing and heroic qualities might
appear, was and forever must remain rank moral cowardice and not
heroism at all.
In the next place, had this lady ever been properly taught any
Catholic truth as to the sacredness of marriage, its vows, and its
duties, she would have known that the Church could not, without
stultifying its past history, possibly accept the whims of a deserting
wife as having any inherent moral value, for the married woman
ceases to be a respectable moral being the moment she deserts her
lawful husband or fails to fulfil her primal and sacred obligations
to him.
86 THE GLOBE.
It w well known to Catholic morals that the same law applies to
a husband. A married man cannot, for any supposed high ideal,
desert his wife and become a moral teacher in the Church, or a priest
at its altars. Indeed, a married man, though deserted by his w^if e and
through her wickedness and sinfulness separated from her by our
blasphemous laws of divorce, cannot become a Catholic priest while
the deserting wife lives, simply because the Church holds that the
marriage vows take precedence of all other vows — in truth, render
any and all other vows of an ecclesiastical character impossible.
The only exception to this is where, by mutual consent — for a time,
or for all time — both the husband and the wife take vows of
celibacy and devote their separate lives to a purely religious voca-
tion. And experience teaches that w^hen vows of this sort have been
made, by mutual consent, they have usually proven a failure, and
I think that the deep and underlying reason of such failure is in the
fact that marriage is the sacredest of all human relationships, and
that God himself will not allow it to be tampered with even for
purposes of supposed mutual action toward other and supposed
higher ends. There are no higher ends.
At all events, that the position of the Church is eminently wise
in treating either individual to the marriage relationship as a part of
the other and in no sense capable of independent moral action of the
kind hinted at, is alike clear from Scripture and from common sense.
The husband and the wife, according to Scripture, are no longer
twain or two but one — one flesh and one united physical and moral
life. I am perfectly aware that the blasphemous, so-called civiliza-
tion of our day can only laugh at this and go to the immaculate
temperance state of South Dakota and get its divorces by the cart
load, so much a head; and that I despise this so-called civilization,
from toe to crown, is no secret to the readers of the Globe Review.
In truth, I founded tliis review to scorn and deride it.
But, let us keep to our theme. The language of Scripture is ex-
plicit as to the vital unity of the married pair, and the primal ob-
ligation of marriage vows. It goes without saying that the Church
is in harmony with Scripture on this point, as it is in every point
whereon it has declared its dogma and morality. What I wish to em-
phasize and to make clear is that both Scripture and the Church are
in exact accord with the common sense of mankind also, if you can
only open your eyes to see this fact.
, MARRIAGE VOWS AND OTHERS. 87
True in one thing, true in all —
False in one thing, false in all
is the verdict of universal human experience. And if the wretched
two-faced envious hypocrites among Catholic editors, clerical and
other, who wilfully or unconsciously are constantly misrepresenting
me in their weak and sophistic editorials could only understand that
I am speaking for truth alone, while they are sold to slavery, envy,
and sycophant falsehood, they would readily understand why they
cannot agree with me. God forgive them and help us to understand
one another.
It is not in their nature to accept the truth. The truth would
damn their souls, and they hate me because I dare to speak the
truth. The Church is wise and pure and divine; I accept that as
fully as any prelate, alive or dead, but God pity the wretched Judases
that are padding her with insufferable lies.
What is the universal, underlying truth of reason and t?ie human
soul in the present case? Simply this — that the man or the woman
who will break his or her marriage vows, because, perhaps, they may
have become irksome, or wearing, or by reason of some sickly theoriz-
ing— would break any other vows that such cowardly soul might
make to God or man or angels, and for precisely the same reasons;
and to take a deserting wife and make a nun of her, or to make a
heroine of her in any sense, is simply to exalt lying, infidelity and
cowardice, and to place these infernal vices on the throne of truth-
fulness, fidelity, and heroic loyalty to whatever vows or duties God
and your own choice have laid upon you. The Church is not such an
ingrate — so Godless, or such a fool.
I do not know the lady in question, personally. Long years ago,
and in the full front of the controversy regarding her father's genius,
I was among his stanchest advocates and God forbid that any hireling
scribbler, Catholic or other, should charge me in this case with favor-
ing the man more than the woman. I forestall such charge by saying
that it is a shameless falsehood.
The case has simply forced upon me the obligation of touching
again upon the subject of marriage and divorce, which I wrote upon
with my life blood in number two of the Globe — now seven years
ago — and I dare all the atheists on earth to refute the position there
maintained.
I say that our modern culture, our modem wealth, our modern
88 THE GLOBE,
society, and our modem Protestantism, including all its " most ad-
vanced teachers " — represent a cult of absolute moral idiots on this
and twenty other themes that newspaper editors — college and uni-
versity bred stults and asses are presuming to write about, and until
we all learn, men and women — Catholic and Protestant — that duty
is duty as God is God, that truth is truth as God is truth, and that
to shirk either is to go to hell, we had better shut up our churches
than our saloons, and cease to talk of honor or character, or the
higher education, or ethics, and know that to desert truth or duty
is to be a dastard and not a saint, or a hero or a heroine in the eyes
of God or any worthy man.
The subject is almost too sacred to fling into its face such apt say-
ings as that of Goethe, quoted so often by Carlyle — " Do the duty
that lies nearest thee, and every other duty whatsoever will seem
plain." It is simply this, that a deserter is a deserter and deserves to
be shot on sight or made to wear the " scarlet letter " of eternal
shame.
And if Catholic editors, or other editors, and Protestant parsons
and law givers, are so lost to the eternal principles of moral obliga-
tion, as involved in the case in question, that they choose to glide over
it and call white black and black white, as in so many other cases,
I must all the more emphasize the old eternal fact that the woman
who deserts her husband, even in order to pursue some other sup-
posed higher ideal, is worthy only of the eternal execration of man-
kind.
It is natural for pettifoggers and newspaper reporters to cherish
such desertions and make all the news and money they can out of
such cases. They live on carrion — and where the immoral carcass is,
there will such immoral vultures congregate and feed. The respect-
able corruptions of society are their meat and drink, and ninety-nine
out of every one hundred Protestant parsons — being without any
moral stamina or backbone on their own account — will act from their
so-called sympathies — squeeze the deserting woman's hand — kiss her
pretty daughters, if she has any, and aid and abet hor in her dis-
loyalty to her husband. Being rebels themselves against the very
functions of moral authority, they naturally aid rebellion, especially
where a woman who poses as an injured woman — or one " inspired
by some lofty idea " — is concerned. A pox upon such eternal fools.
It is doubtless true that loyal husbands and wives have troublous
MARRIAGE VOWS AND OTHERS. 89
hours now and then. Incompatibilities of temperament and tastes
will, especially when so tied together, react and strike fire, but usually
and only when the self-assertive selfishness of either party becomes
the ruling motive of life for a longer or shorter term. But in these
very admissions we are conditioning true loyalty and admitting the
hell-bringing element of personal selfishness, which never ought to
show its vile head in any wedded life.
And do not prostitutes and paramours and flippant, but wiseacre
divorces also have troublous times? My observation, carefully applied
these last forty years, teaches me that a rush from the marriage to the
divorce court is a rush from the frying-pan into the fire; and any
woman that will desert her husband for slight or grave causes has al-
ready divorced herself in the eyes of all the laws of mankind. She is
in fact, by this very act, now quite ready for any stratagems or spoils.
She cannot help herself. The eternal laws of this moral universe are
yea and amen on this theme, and all the termagant, gad-about, social
reform screamers on God's earth, cannot alter these laws. They can
become free, precisely as all devils are free, and serve the devil in
their termagant freedom. I do not presume to understand what in-
compatibilities there might have been in the case hinted at. I do
not assert that there were any. It is not my business to pry into such
matters. It is the business of no one but the parties themselves and
the priests who might have been their confessors. I despise alike the
nosing repori:er who gloats over details of this sort — and the still
more contemptible self-imposed moral censors of the private affairs
of any man or woman, Protestant or Catholic. I know such pious
vipers and I hate them worse than hell. But when public action is
taken, and public notice made of such action, it is the province of all
true teachers to note such public action, as far as it can be noted
without entering into private details, and the case in question is an
illustration of this kind. It is of no consequence to me what the
private relations of these pari;ies were. My position is that the act of
desertion was an open social crime, and that for any woman who has
committed such a crime to pose as a heroine, or a saint, or a respect-
able moral agent, or anything but a common outlaw, is to outrage
and rot all the principles of social morality; and the more prominent
and gifted the person, and the more pretentious her or his claims in
the case, the more despicable his or her type of misdirected con-
science.
90 THE OLOBE.
I can readily understand that the married life of a literan' man
and a literary woman must in the nature of things be a very thin ice
walking sort of an experiment; especially in this age, when every
woman who has a smattering of schooling thinks herself the superior
of all men on earth. Besides, the literary temperament is apt to be
peppery and exacting. The heats of working periods and the chills
and wearinesses of periods of rest, both need especial ministry and
care. Here is where Jane Carlyle damned her gifted husband. In
the case of George Lewes and George Elliot — in the first place, they
were never married, and their social blunder and its consequent isola-
tion alike made them more considerate of one another. In truth,
Lewes became the woman in the case and did all the patient ministry
— for pay — while George Elliot, ruined in her moral sense, did the
most attractive and yet the most immoral work of the respectable
literature of the Victorian era — so-called.
It is an old story that literary men are hard to live with, and yet
universal experience shows that they are, of. all men, the most ap-
preciative of refined and gentle ministries; hence, as by law of nature,
the most indignant toward all low forms of dirt and disloyalty on
the part of their wives. I am not even hinting that there was any
serious incompatibility in the case that suggested this article. I am
simply jotting down reflections that have grown out of it; and if
necessary, or worth while, I could tip every word with personal star-
fire on the one side, and the sickly flames and fumes of hell on the
other, and give you names and dates and laws and divorces and pos-
ing women and lascivious men to justify the seriousness with which
I have handled the matter. No words can express my indignation for
the deserters, the wilful divorces, or for the damned courts of law
that pander to this eternal crime.
The trouble is that society itself is corrupt to the core, that news-
paper and other moralists who write on this theme and apologize for
corrupt society, are themselves blind leaders of the blind, and already
sold to the father of lies before they begin their moralizing.
In truth, the further trouble is that large numbers of men and
women now engaged in the work of teaching social and other moral-
ity in this age are voluntary and wilful divorces, deserters of every
social integrity, and it seems to be the pet business of faithless women
to teach faithfulness and heroism to the rising generation of men.
God pity their hardened and insurgent souls.
MARRIAGE VOWS AND OTHERS. 91
There is one thing to be grateful for in all this, and that is, that
these female animals are seldom mothers. In fact, this may explain
alike their errors of head and their blindness of soul, though many
so-called respectable mothers are the vilest leaders in this crusade
against all moral law.
Long years before I was received into the Catholic Church — in
fact, through all my mature life — I have held the most orthodox view
of the Church regarding the sacredness and indissolubleness of mar-
riage and the unutterably binding character of marriage vows. This
is not a matter of assertion. My writings and my life prove the asser-
tion.
Many years ago, during a period of doubt, I doubted this, as others
doubt it to-day, and was inclined to admit the widest claims of in-
dividual liberty in this matter; but, strange to say, my careful read-
ing and repeated study of the wonderfully able essay of Milton in his
special pleading for divorce — simply to justify his own conduct —
reconvinced me of the eternal validity of the very opposite of his
claims, and desertion is just as bad as divorce, or worse. It is taking
all law — God*s law and man's law — in your own hands, and playing
master or mistress of the universe in your own behalf; and, of course,
that is the soul and legitimate outcome of all Protestantism. But
the Catholic Church is absolutely right on tliis point, as on every
other wherein she has declared her final view. In fact, there is no
vow of the priesthood, monkhood, or sisterhoods of the Church so
sacred, so noble, so God-founded and eternally binding as the vows
of marriage, especially as sanctioned and sanctified by the Church.
In all the special religious vows indicated they are made by the
Church, to the Church, and for the Church. In certain spheres of
labor they are qualified, and in others made from year to year; tlie
Paulists, for instance, do not take the vow of poverty; and the same
power that created these vows, and for whose glory they are made,
and to whom they are made, can abrogate them, and relieve the re-
ligious person therefrom.
But marriage was constituted direct by God almighty, before the
Church existed; its vows are sacred and life-long, independent of
the Church, and the Church rightly judges that it has no power to
revoke the laws of God. Jesus was never more sublime than when
he said. By reason of the hardness of your hearts Moses granted you
divorce, but from the beginning it was not so.
92 THE GLOBE.
Another primal cause of our modem laxity regarding marriage
vows will be found in our stupid American " Declaration of In-
dependence," and the universal notion of human rights, so-called —
that is of individual human rights— that is my rights, not my neigh-
bor's rights, my duties to myself, to him, and to all men and women,
and to God himself, in a moral universe such as we inhabit.
This atheistic error in TomPaine's and Tom Jefferson's philosophy
has developed a final state of society wherein each individual of the
most ignorant, vulgar, and criminal classes out of hell or the pen-
itentiary, feels that he or she has the same rights in our railroad
cars, on our streets, in our restaurants and hotels — not to speak of
our politics and churches, which are often run by libertines and
thieves — ^that honest people, refined people, modest people, scholars,
men and women of honor, ladies and gentlemen, have; hence it hap-
pens that instead of treating the ignorant and the vile — rich or poor
— with Christian pity, one is obliged in simple self-defence to treat
them with unutterable contempt; and I hold that the most dis-
astrous and dastardly consequences of this false philosophy are now
ripening to all the flora of hell in the faces and manners and morals
of our modern women.
" But there are exceptions, Mr. Thorne." Certainly, dear lady,
whoever you may be — exceptions so beautiful, chaste, pure, and
womanly that without them it were a curse to breed any more
children simply to witness the certain and all sweeping damnations
of hell.
A pox upon the notions of that woman who, once honored by the
name of wife, and the name of any worthy man, dreams that she
has a mission to fulfil higher than that of loyal and loving wifehood
and motherhood.
Again our pestiferous notions of our rights, instead of convictions
as to our duties, have made us look upon marriage as a play-ground
or a pleasure-garden; and if we are not entirely happy in it at once,
we rush to the conclusion that it is better to rush out of it. Rushing
where? as I have hinted — but leaving out the appeal to our own
selfishness and betterment.
In God's name, what decree of heaven was there, or is there, which
guarantees that you should be happy! Is the school boy or girl al-
ways happy at his or her tasks in school? Is the prostitute always
happy? Let the kindly skies of forgetfulness hang their softest veil
MODERN VELOCITIES. 93
of mercy over her woes. Is the debauche always happy? Let the
fires of hell that bum their blacker and redder shadows into his face
and eyes answer the question. From every selfish standpoint on
earth it is better to be true than false.
Are we here for happiness at any cost or for virtue and angelic
glory — if need be, at the cost of happiness? Give up happiness, if
need be, and get blessedness. Plant thy feet amid the stars of loy-
alty and abide the laws of heaven.
Nevertheless, it is as clear as noonday that virtue is its own reward,
here and throughout eternal ages. God would be false to His own
highest ideal laws were the case otherwise. Jesus may weep and cry
out in agony to-day, as seemingly forgotten of his friends and for-
saken of God — ^but to-morrow the universal tides of sunlight and
glory will turn in his favor, and the acclamations of living eternities
drown his cries in their plaudits of praise.
It shall be so with you, dear woman, in the exact measure that
you follow your own line of duty in your self-chosen or God-ap-
pointed sphere of life, and His angels shall crown you as they have
crowned every true hero or heroine since time began.
Let me add, in concluding, that the more difficult your task as
wife — for all life is a piece of work, not a play-ground — and the more
beautiful and silent your endurance, and the more persistent
your pure truth and love and chastity, the more certain your victory,
the more perfect your joy here and hereafter; but the deserter is
already damned.
William Hexky Thorne.
MODERN VELOCITIES.
A group of friends were gathered about Mrs. Asquith's fireside,
enjcjdng to the full the beautiful blaze, now vivid in scarlet and gold,
then dying into faint tints of violet, or, again, starting into a dash of
blue flame above the glowing embers. Out of doors the snow lay
soft on the black tree-boughs and the lake revealed a sheet of pearl,
where the wind had blown it bare.
Heedless of all this, the young editor of the Bubble was questioning
his hostess on the matter nearest his heart.
"Pardon me, Mrs. Asquith, but where is your daughter to-day?
94 THE GLOBE,
We are lost without her. La belle Helene is the life of our ^3^11-
posiums! "
Mrs. Asquith sighed. We shall have to resign ourselves and be
patient, Mr. Eliot. Fate is against us! She has gone flying off with
Percy to that toboggan chute. It seems as if we hardly saw her at all.
Last summer, it was the new row-boat, and through the fall, her
bicycle; now, the craze is skating! Winter and summer the wliirl
is on."
" Percy is a born squire of dames, as you know, Mrs. Asquith, and
Helen will duly reappear,'' remarked Professor Graham, from his
nook by the fire-side. "Do not worry! For she will come in happy
as summer, with rosy cheeks and shining eyes. Isn't that enough? "
"No! not half enough. We want her here. I remember an old
song which pathetically cried, * What is home without a mother? '
I say, ' What is home without a daughter ? ' "
Professor Graham smiled at her vehemence. " It is hard for us
elderly folk to look at this thing with sympathy," he rejoined. " Yet
the physical effects of open-air sports are, on the whole, worth con-
sidering. A merry, healthy young woman is better than a palo, ner-
vous one, with sentimental ringlets, shivering by this blaze! If not
altogether overdone, as it often is through thoughtlessness, the hy-
giene of it all is good."
" Granted; but, you see, there are other considerations," said Miss
Edith Dormer, a guest of Mrs. Asquith's, who, having finished the
note she was hastily writing, now came to join the fireside group.
" Helen's music, for instance. She has no time to practise; and that
is such a pity with her superior powers! "
" She is caught in the whirl of the times! " declared the young
editor. " It sweeps her along, as it does others. I doubt if effectual
resistance is possible! See even the clergy bicycling over their
parishes, whizzing off type-written sermons, while the sewing-ma-
chine and the ' sweater's ' shop supersede Dorcas! It is an age of
dynamic force. I say, we cannot oppose it — and the young must live
in it; why shouldn't they adapt themselves? "
" A love of swift motion marks the whole human race," said the
Professor, thoughtfully. " Nimrod was a mighty hunter, and the ex-
citement of the chase stirred the world in its very infancy. The
chariots of Nineveh and Babylon are depicted for us, plainly; the
war-horses of Egypt and its horsemen, with their swiftness of
splendid achievement, dazzled all the surrounding nations."
MODERN VELOCITIES. 95
" But the children of Israel were forbidden to ride upon horses,"
said Mrs. Asquith, quickly. " They were to trust in the slower, silent
powers, invisible and unhasting, because Divine. To-day we also
have to choose between the star-light of God and our own electric
arcs."
" And the choice is made," cried Mr. Eliot. " We will ride upon
horses! No splendid achievement possible to this nation shall be
foregone! Wealth we will gain, luxury we will enjoy; power, almost
imperial, of its own kind, we will wield. And the Lord has not yet
pronounced against us."
" Our idea seems to be this," said Miss Dormer. " That these
things, in themselves, are His gifts; and, that, by a wise use of them,
wiser than the elder nations made — we shall avoid provo"king Him to
wrath. Wealth we lavish on charities and churches — perhaps as
much from some vague idea of propitiating this all-giving Father
as from any real love of Him — His ways are not our ways, that is
certain, nor His thoughts, our thoughts; luxury we counterbalance
by charity; and power we claim to wield, not selfishly, but for the
common good. We are trying to ward off His wrath in these ways.
Then the Christianity of the nation, however imperfect, however in
abeyance, counts for something. For the sake of a few righteous
men, names unknown, the Lord would have spared Sodom; for the
sake of the innocent He did spare Mneveh. A silent force of the
spiritual sort, how potent we dare not say and cannot dream, is
among us perpetually."
" I call it a noisy force, Edith dear! From the drums and tam-
bourines of the Salvation Army to the Christian Endeavor Conven-
tions, whirling across the continent with their bands of young people
— and including the newsboys crying Sunday papers, the sensation
preaching which suits the masses, our money-pushed missions, with
much noise in the money-getting, boy choirs and Sunday-schools
'like armies with banners — ' it is the most aggressive piety ever
known on earth! As a silent force Christianity is done! "
Young Eliot laughed outright. " It is the whirl of the wheel,
Mrs. Asquith. The world re-acts on the Church for good or ill; we
may as well admit it. Eailroads, telegraphs, and ocean greyhounds
facilitate her missions; the nations in darkness will see a great light
much the sooner therefor. So far it is well. Material wealth facili-
tates her work. Well, again: — but as to spiritual results, I, for one,
say nothing! "
96 THE OLOBE.
" I commend your prudence," remarked the Professor, smiling.
*'Tt is a burning question and bad for one's fingers! But I will
venture as far as this; that, while earnest Christian effort, made in
supreme humility, is beyond cavil, as it is rare and beyond price,
there is also a religious zeal not according to knowledge. An over-
multiplication of agencies in Christian work — ^too much stir, which
becomes a vent for fussiness and importance — too many wires to
pull and doors open for ecclesiastical intrigue — Protestant canon-
making worse than our civil legislation — occasional mis-manage-
ment of charitable or church funds, often owing, perhaps, to the com-
plexity of modern methods in accounts — charities and missions
overlapping each other and interfering mutually — these are a part
of our present tangle. It is like the network of overhead wires in
our cities. It will have to be simplified and some of it put under
ground. Then, perhaps, the silent, invisible forces Miss Dormer al-
ludes to will softly grow — like wood-mosses creeping over stone —
shining out more beautiful and potent."
" Possibly the whirl of the wheel may be indirectly beneficial, like
a breeze or tempest. The air may need some purifying power. In
great crises, it has sometimes been the Lord's way of working. A
rushing, mighty wind came upon the Apostles, with the gift of
tongues."
" But, Mr. Eliot, we are making an every-day agency of what the
Lord only ordained for great occasions. An emergency hospital for
immediate, hasty treatment of sin-sick souls, or those hurt in the
world's outer tumult, is not exactly what the Church was meant to
be. Serenity, depth, perpetuity — and calm from out the eternities
— should mark her ministries."
" True, Miss Dormer; yet not till after the whirlwind comes the
still, small voice."
" Yes," chimed in Mrs. Asquith. " That is my hope; that re-
action will — nay, must — set in. The Lord, himself, will say,
"Peacel be still! "
The young editor broke the silence which ensued by producing a
clipping from one of his exchanges. " I found a piece of verse-work,
the other day, showing, in a most amusing way, how even Nature's
calm has been invaded by our whirligigs. May I not read it, Mrs.
Asquith? It runs thus, it is the plaint of ' A Modern Lake ' :
MODERN VELOCITIES, 97
No longer deer beneath the shade
Of alders falter on my brink,
But miles away, in pipes conveyed,
I give to thirsty thousands drink.
A tame, prosaic lake am I,
With views of modern culture fraught;
And all my hopes and passions lie
In planes of philosophic thought.
Or if, at times, the scaly shard
Of bass or pickerel in me stirs,
I trust 'tis done with due regard
To laws and fish commissioners!
And so on.''
"A depressed pool that! " laughed the Professor. " Set in the
swamps of modem pessimism, whose rank growth claims to be cult-
ure, whose miasmatic prose kills everything like poetry."
" * Philosophic thought ' will not restore the wild beauty of the
lake nor check the destruction of our New Hampshire forests. And it
is all the more regi'ettable because the sweetness and calm of the wilds
are the most potent forces known for quieting our nervousness. Our
perpetual national excitement in the pursuit of gold and our frantic
haste to spend it, the whirl of business and the whirl of social life,
alike resemble the dynamo. Now if we can " step it down " from
four hundred volts to two hundred, it becomes a safer force to handle.
We love Nature because her voice is harmonious. We are weary of
jangle and go to her in search of pure tone; and, as of old, they who
seek, find."
" The Greeks, who were nearest her life, felt this harmony in-
stinctively," said the Professor, thinking slowly. " The Greek sculp-
tor, to express his thought, adopted her simplest forms, the wild
honeysuckle with its dainty curves and the spiral of the sea-shell,
thereby attaining harmony ineffable. It is the most serene beauty,
perfectly restful, placid as eternity itself. The student in touch with
Homer, who sang the veriest simplicities of life, or enamored of
Plato, will not be bound to every whirl of the wheel. He knows the
fate of Ixion. He will measure our velocities from afar, with gentle
accuracy, and possess his soul in patience. He who dwells in any de-
gree of nearness to the Divine cannot be shaken by the world's jar
or hurried by its fret. In a true sense, he abides in the shadow of the
Eternal."
VOL. VII.— 7.
98 THE GLOBE,
" It seems strange," said Miss Dormer, " but Christian people are
very easily caught in the belts of the world's machinery. Hurry and
fuss and confusion, the demands of fashion, the press of business,
sweep them off their base; in fact, they offer less resistance than
Platonist or Stoic. I am amazed, every day, at the facility with
which good people yield to fashion and her poorest ' fads.' Perhaps
they are too gentle to object, or fear offending others and being sin-
gular."
" They dare not live on their own higher plane," cried Mrs. As-
quith, " they are afraid of life — and still more, of pain and death! "
"I saw an amusing squib, the other day," laughed the young
editor, " on ' The Growing Unpopularity of Death; ' a significant
straw showing the course of the wind. ' High medical authorities,'
it declared, * are of the opinion that by the end of another half
century there will have Ixjen discovered specifics for every disease.
There will be no reasonable excuse for dying. Then, communities
can regulate numerically their respective populations. A city like
Chicago, whose laurels rest on census estimates which almost outrun
her resistless city limits, can work this circumstance for all that is
in it. She could enforce municipal legislation prohibiting death and
emigration, and in time revel in a population so dense that whole
families would be crowded into one composite individual. In the
New England States, where women are in the majority, it could be
mad€ a felony for an able-bodied man to die! ' And so the nonsense
runs on. But behind the joke, and constituting its real point, lies the
fact that the community does, more and more, fear death.
" How often conversation, among sensible people, turns on medical
* fadfi ' and hobbies! The schemes of this or that quack for promot-
ing longevity; the hygience of this or that practice, the advantages
of this or that food, the best conditions for escaping this or that
disease, the pretended discoveries of this or that scientist — all these
interest men deeply and are popular topics. The real trouble with
these people is in the fact that the wheel stops; nay, the faster it re-
volves,'the sooner the end. Business, money-getting, political ad-
vancement, social successes, are checked by what seems a direct inter-
position of the Divine hand. And where is the heart itself when the
summons comes? With the loving Father, who is calling the soul
up into His own presence? Or is it fixed on the whirl of the wheel?
It is the lightning transition from noise to silence, from whirl to
rest, that makes the pathetic potency of Death."
MODERN VELOCITIES. 99
" The fear of Death is a common heritage; but, in our age, its
kernel is a cowardly, unchristian fear of the Hereafter."
" True, Miss Dormer! Your keen perceptions are rarely at fault.
There is much skepticism abroad and much more latent. We need
a Savonarola or a St. Francis to lay a mighty grasp on the whirhng
wheel, and in the silence of its slower revolutions awaken new faith in
the hearts of men."
" The example of a Father Damien is the best of saintly preaching.
The whole Christian world has listened to it and even the Gallios,
* who care for none of these things,' have touched their hats in real
respect."
" It is the Divine Ideal of sacrifice, holding the world in its blessed
clasp," said Mrs. Asquith, softly.
" But, my dear Mrs. Asquith," ventured the young editor, " think
what one of your advanced Episcopal rectors says in the ^ Church-
man ' — ^it shows how the wheel has whirled, religiously — * If Chris-
tianity a hundred years from now is to be the widespread and efficient
religion that I believe it is destined to be, the cause will be the pre-
dominance at that future day of the ethical elements in Christianity
and a subordination of what are generally called the sacramental and
sacrificial principles. These latter will not be forgotten, but they will
become beautiful parts of an ethical ideal.' "
" So far the modern rector! " cried Miss Dormer,- " Now, hear
Saint Paul. * For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
Gospel — not with wisdom of words — ' why? *lest the Cross of
Christ be made of none effect.' His anxiety is lest the sacrificial
should not be dominant! Which of these is the voice of humility?
Which, of spiritual power? To this day, despite everything — and on,
forever — * the meek inherit the earth.' "
" I do not understand! " murmured Mrs. Asquith. " Why, the
Cross is the sinner's salvation! until sin is done, it remains such;
the sacramental becomes his means of clasping it, his source of
strength. A hundred years hence, men will still need sacrifice and
sacrament; the more saintly they grow, the more they will cling
thereto! Itis thus with individuals; why not with the world? The
ethical being the offspring of the other two and nowise else perfectly
produced, must remain subordinate — practically, I mean, and as far
as man is concerned."
" The whirl of the wheel is evident in the views of many young
preachers. They are like the stars the astronomers call * variables,' "
100 THE GLOBE.
remarked the Professor, smiling. " Do not be unhappy, Mrs. As-
quith; it is a question of velocity and the race is not to the swift, in
case of truths which are eternal, changeless and invincible."
" The slower-moving forces, being more weighty, get a sure pre-
dominance in the end," said Mr. Eliot. " I am sure the velocities of
press and publication hurt literary work; overflowing quantity and
rapid production lower its quality. The quicker-moving intellect is
far from being the greater intellect! The type- writer minimizes
individuality. Swift mechanism of any sort naturally does this, and
the mechanical in art and letters kills the vitalities of both. Soul-
force and machine-force will not go hand in hand."
" True, Mr. Eliot! Look at the publishers' announcements at the
incessant production of things not worth producing. The wheel is
wreathed, like those of the fanciful equipages at the Los Angeles
flower-shows, with Yellow Asters and wild blooms of sensuous odor.
In fact, it revolves too fast for continuous reading in any line! So
we get booklets, bibelots, picture papers to amuse a baby-mmded
throng, and illustrated magazines, where thought is an uncouth in-
truder and verse simply ground out to fit the illustrations."
" Now, moreover, the bright boys have evoked the poster-maga-
zine, which tries to be brilliant and saucy. It whirls along, dashing
dust in the sunshine at the old notions of wholesome law and piety,
in a spirit of New Bohemian bravado. Poor lads! They think they
are striking something original in their Fly-Leaves and screeds of re-
bellion, when irreligion is, in fact, the oldest thing out, harking back
to our ancient grandfather, Adam, himself. The newest sin com-
mitted and the latest cartel sent, only voice the same human wilful-
ness; and the Philistine of to-day, like his ancestors, is vainly and
weakly fighting the hosts — the shining hosts — of the living God."
" The restlessness of these souls is not wholly an evil sign," said
Miss Dormer, thoughtfully. " They have no peace, no real pleasure;
dust is hard to breathe and the weary wheel tires; so the day is com-
ing when they will return to sound philosophy and religion. The
soul, like the body, must rest at some point; then, the whirl stops
and a light shines from heaven. In the Lord's good time, for each,
all this will come and will not tarry.
" Yes; la belle H^l^ne will return," reiterated the Professor, " and
so will the poster-boys and young preachers. Folly cannot ' down '
wisdom. The temporary cannot battle the eternal. The star-like
Terities perpetually shine, regardless of our ignes fatui and coruscat-
OLOBE NOTES. 101
ing fire-works. The goodness of God endureth forever, like the blue
over head; no storm of the lower atmosphere stirs that serenity.
Therefore, I say. Philosophy and Eeligion can afford to wait their ap-
pointed triumph.
The truth seems to lie in this, that extremes are perilous. There
is a beautiful swing between motion and rest, controlling the uni-
verse. Behold the equilibrium of the earth, the poise of the stars,
their balanced forces of attraction and repulsion, the eternal pen-
dulum of the Divine. Now humanity, at its best, has this even
swing; this age may be too fast, the past may have lagged behind
time. In either case, it is the part of wisdom to correct aberrations —
that we may have in literature, in society, in religion that soft per-
fection which Goethe indicates in his profoundly beautiful chorus —
" Like to a star
Without haste, without rest,
Be each one fulfilling-
His God-given hest."
Miss Dormer had listened, with shining eyes. " Let me say a
word more," she cried. ''Holy prophecy unfolds the same truth
with a brighter vision. Ezekiel beheld splendid living creatures,
* that ran and returned as a flash of lightning,' in the wheels of God's
providence. * Whither the Spirit was to go, they went.' And this
is the law of invisible restraint for us also, keeping us safe and blessed
amid these apparently uncurbed circlings of nineteenth-century
velocity."
Caroline D. Swan.
Gardiner, Maine.
GLOBE NOTES.
At the outset of these Globe Notes, I wish to call especial atten-
tion to what seems to me a glaring and a most unreasonable in-
justice frequently perpetrated by so-called critics, and often by so-
called Catholic critics, in their notices of the Globe Eeview.
As a matter of fact, from the day of its founding until now, the
Globe has taken higher moral, literary, and religious ground than
auy magazine published in the United States. To take such ground
102 THE GLOBE.
— from a purely critical standpoint — was the object for which I
founded the Globe. It was so announced from the start. I have
never yielded this point for a moment, and I know from long ex-
perience that it is — as has been said of it — " far and away the ablest
periodical published in America." The weak knees may totter at this
and the hacks smile in derision.
As a matter of fact, again — from the first number of this magazine
until the last — ninety per cent, of the contents of each issue has
been devoted to sober and highest class criticism — not, as I deter-
mined and announced from the first — in the old-fashioned, dry-as-
dust method of criticism, but in a new and live method — quite my
own. About ten per cent, of each issue has been given to a still freer
and more incisive, and as occasion has demanded, a more personal
form of criticism of public men and their public utterances and
actions. Still not more than one per cent, of this small ten per cent,
has ever reached the point where even the most unworthy and con-
temptible hireling slaves of literature and politics could even dream,
in a moment of their stung madness that they had any legal case
against the editor; and in these cases — as well enough known to the
criticised parties — Thorne knew so much more of them than he even
cared to tell, that they have never publicly complained.
Nevertheless, certain so-called Catholic and other editors always
criticise this Review as if it were made up of personal " abuse " from
beginning to end, and do they wonder, therefore, that I speak of
them as infamous hirelings and contemptible fools?
* « ♦ * * * «
In a notice of the December, 1896, issue of the Globe, the excel-
lent editor of the iVew ^^orld, Chicago, of whom I would fain speak
only in kindness by reason of his many good qualities, spoke of this
magazine as if " abuse " was its only stock in trade, and in various
ways misrepresented my work. I may be severe at times, but as many
noble priests and others have written me, time and again, " the worst
of it is it*s true."
But when Mr. Dillon speaks of me as always writing in a patroniz-
ing or a condescending way of Irishmen, he utters a slanderous
falsehood, and does me great wrong; and I advise him to read the
back numbers of the Globe, or even the last numb*er, with more sense
and carefulness before he allows himself to make any such statement
again.
Over six hundred priests of Irish birth or descent are among my
GLOBE NOTES. 103
subscribers, and many scores of them are among my warmest friends,
and does this new man of the Windy City dream for a moment that
these facts would be thus if his statement of the case were anywhere
near the truth.
Was my manner of speaking of Archbishops Feehan, Corrigan,
and Ryan in the last Globe a patronizing manner, and would he
call my manner of speaking of Archbishop Ireland patronizing?
Hardly.
I suppose that these men are all Irish or of Irish descent; and I
am glad to be able to treat them as in some sense my equals, but if
Mr. Dillon expects me to treat the blatherskite Irish members of the
English Parliament, not to speak of the vulgar crews of Irish Ameri-
can poHticians, as equals or as worthy even of being patronized by
me, God pity his own incompetent vision. I consider the whole lot
only as so much stubble ready to be plucked up and burned.
I was much amused at Mr. Dillon's public confession that he
could not treat the English with impartiality, seeing that his own
father or grandfather once had his foot trod upon and crushed by
the British lion.
Bless his dear innocent heart, when I was a boy I was indignant
enough at the British government to tear its heart out because of
some unjust legislation which incidentally increased the taxes while
lessening the permanent value of my own father's homestead; but
alas, I have learned on coming to manhood that human govern-
ments, English, Irish, French, German, Italian, Russian, or what
not, are usually run by cliques of tyrants and thieves, and I do not
hate the English or the whole human race because its governments
are usually the minions of hell.
On the contrary, I tell this man again, as I have written over and
over again in this Review, I have not known a national or a racial
prejudice these last forty years.
When an Irishman writes like Swift, I almost adore him, though
I know his make-up to have been mean as the devil. When an Irish-
man writes poetry like Tom Moore, I weep over him and love him as
fervently as any member of his own race, though all the while I
know him to have been a cringing snob; but when a picked-out-of-
the-gutter Irishman like Bourke Cockran becomes the voluntary
slave of mere plutocratic slave masters and poses over lying plati-
tudes of senseless bombast called Irish oratory, I cannot help advis-
104 THE GLOBE.
ing him to go to the " divil *' where he belongs, and if he or his
friends do not like such plain talk the pages of the Globe are open
to them to contradict or explain.
Another case of striking injustice toward the Globe, on the part
of the editor of the New Y^orld, was when he took up the whipping
I gave a fellow called William Henry Sheeran — quoted my severest
words and called tliem " abuse," without quoting at all the wretched
yelpings of the fellow Sheeran, which yelpings of his, without any
provocation on my part, were the very things that led to my kicking
him as I would any other cur that ran up, unprovoked, to attack
me. According to the iVew; l^orld the fellow Sheeran is a priest.
I did not know that at the time, and the iVety V^orWs word is the
only evidence I have of the fact to-day. If a priest, he was not even
worthy of my " abuse; " he was and is simply beneath my contempt.
I have no respect, and I do not believe that God almighty has any re-
spect, for such priests as Sheeran. If anybody is interested let him
find what I quoted of Sheeran^s words in the September, 1896, issue
of the Globe Eeview. I never cover the same ground a second time.
This same sort of bumptious, unjust, and casuistic criticism has
appeared in other quarters. Some Cleric, to the extent of two or three
columns, went into it recently in the Springfield, Mass., (Cath.)
Tribune, speaking of me as no doubt very " chummy," etc., with
Mr. Charles St. Laurent, and as never happy except when I was
abusing the hierarchy — the despicable clerical booby. I am not
" chummy" with any man, and this Springfield clerical rhetorician
must have read the Globe to little purpose if at this day he under-
stands me as little as he seems to. In truth, these clerical editorial
scribblers forget that they are no longer swinging their priestly
authority when writing, anonymously in long-winded newspaper edi-
torials. Let them mind their own business — stick to their own vo-
cation, and I will not bother them or fail to treat them with due
respect, but when the pygmies shoot in the dark behind doors, and
use falsehood and ever}' sort of hypocrite assumption, they will have
to pardon me if I say, To Purgatory with such clerics! At all events
I will not spare them. I send the same sort of compliment to a
writer in the Casket who wrote of me as " an insufferable egotist,
and wishing to run the whole Catholic Church." Not at all, but I
would run such clowns as these out of its service, and send them in
the direction indicated.
GLOBE NOTES. 105
In truth, when I look into my own heart, remember the feelings
of universal kindness with which I entered the Church, and know
that these same motives of charity still control my life, I marvel at
the dastards who under the name of Catholic authority have
wronged, cheated, and misrepresented me and my work, as many of
them have done.
I desire to make mention of one brotherly and beautiful exception
to the line of comment and conduct I am here condemning. In a re-
cent issue of the Carmelite Review, the editor seems to have dis-
covered that the editor of the Globe Review is not wholly given
over to " abuse " of his fellow men, and I hereby thank said editor
very sincerely for his comments upon the first article in the Decem-
ber, 1896, Globe. If the whipper snappers of the " Catholic Press "
force me to fight, I cannot decline battle. I come of a race that have
usually won in that profession — and though I shrink from conflict,
I have never yet met the mortal man of whom I was afraid.
In this connection I may be pardoned for recalling a reference
made to the editor of the Globe Eeview last year in an editorial
in the North West Beview. It seemed to be kindly in spirit, but at
the same time apologetic toward myself on the ground that, not
having had a college training, perhaps Mr. Thorne might be excused
for his self-assertion. Stuff and infernal nonsense!
During the six years from 1858 to 1864, I was in more or less
constant rivalry and intercourse in my studies with at least seven
hundred students in classical academy, college, and seminary. Hun-
dreds of them were better Greek and Latin scholars than I, and bet-
ter mathematicians, and I knew it all the while and honored them
accordingly, but not one in the whole seven hundred had worked as
hard as I had worked in the lines of mental and moral philosophy
or in general literature, or could then command the attention of an
intelligent audience with the power that I naturally commanded it,
and out of those more than seven hundred students in these dif-
ferent institutions of learning, I selected one man as the only man
among them all that I considered in any way a rival before the in-
tellectual, English speaking world of the coming fifty years, thirty-
three of which have already past. To-day I am glad to say that my
reading of character at that time has proven absolutely true.
Joseph Cook, in 1860-61, of the sophomore class of Yale College,
is the man I refer to, and I knew then, as clearly as I know to-day,
that this man would spend himself in rhetorical fume and smoke
106 THE OLOBE.
just about the time that my own deeper and more earnest work
would begin to find recognition.
In the near future I intend to write an article on " The Fad of
Higher Education; " meanwhile I wish all pedagogues and profes-
sors of modern cant — the D.D's. and the LL.D's., to put their titles
and their vanities in their pockets for safe-keeping and use what
little brains they have to recall the fact, that the higher college
education, so-called, has seldom had much influence on our greatest
men; that the ablest men of the human race for hundreds of years
have owed very little to their college or university training, and for
reasons which I will make plain. I have never claimed any special
scholarship for myself or my work, and the assertions in the Cath-
olic Tribune, Springfield, Mass., last year, to the effect that I was
fond of making such claims, were a slanderous lie. I cannot help it
if other people credit me with ability or scholarship.
I am fifty-eight years of age, and from the age of five years, when
I was first sent to school, until now, with the exception of the three
years between the age of fifteen and eighteen, during which three
years I was engaged in business, I have given my whole life to such
studies as scholars usually pursue; but I claim nothing, except that
I try to defend those truths and virtues that ought to win and hold
the soul of every Christian man.
Three of the stupidest serious paragraphs that have been going
the rounds of the reviews and literary organs during the past three
months, came, -firstj from Herbert Spencer in his r^sum^ of the final
outcome of his long winded and many volumed philosophy of wordy
humbuggery; second, from a Catholic priest named Zurcher, of
Buffalo, N. Y., touching foreign and American ideas in the Cath-
olic Church in this country; third, from the dough-face organ of
Philadelphia respectability called the Public Ledger,
I here give the first two paragraphs with comment, and the other
will be found as text to my article on our arbitration fiasco in another
part of this magazine.
First let us look at Herbert Spencer's latest wisdom on Socialism.
Hear what the prophet saith:
" It seems that in the course of social progress, parts, more or less
large, of each society are sacrificed for the benefit of the society as
a whole. In the earlier stages the sacrifice takes the form of mor-
tality in the wars perpetually carried on during the struggle for ex-
GLOBE NOTES. 107
istence between tribes and nations; and in later stages the sacrifice
takes the form of mortality entailed by the commercial struggle, and
the keen competition entailed by it. In either case men are used up
for the benefit of posterity; and so long as they go on multiplying in
excess of the means of subsistence, there appears no remedy."
Now all of this, except the last nineteen words of the last sen-
tence, is the old. stock in trade that moralists and preachers have
been telling us for thousands of years; in a word, is not at all Herbert
Spencerish; in truth, is good enough old historic statement or nat-
ural and universal fact. In the last nineteen words alone we have
the peculiar Herbert Spencer cant — which he in turn learned from
that old shot-rubbish basket known to the world as "Malthus,"
and I simply call attention to the utter falsehood and foolishness of
these nineteen words.
They are a lie, that is, in the only particular wherein they have
any bearing upon the subject in hand, or any originality — ^I mean,
in this, that never in all human history have men gone on " mul-
tiplying in excess of the means of subsistence; " and in the truth or
falsehood of these eight words, this whole fabric of wisdom stands
or falls.
I am writing for thinking people. Let them run their recollec-
tions over all the past and most crowded eras of human history in
any and all nations and races of mankind, and they will find that
never in all history has the increase of population been in excess of
the natural sources and means of subsistence.
In a word, the presumption is a falsehood on the face of it, and I
here make this challenge and offer. Let any admirer of Herbert
Spencer select any ten pages from any one or from any ten volumes
of his works, and I will agree to prove the utter falsehood in each
page of the peculiar Speneerian key-note that seems to give value
to this man's endless verbosity.
In truth, Herbert Spencer is the Emerson of modem materialism.
Emerson was the literary genius of New England transcendental
everlasting wordiness. He never tested his meaningless sentences by
any standards of natural or spiritual truth. Did not think it neces-
sary. The last voice of the human race had all the wisdom of the
past. His was the last voice, and there was an end of it. " Con-
sistency, stuff a rag in thy mouth."
Herbert Spencer is the literary genius of all the accumulated
materialistic rubbish that has been gathering in the English race
108 THE GLOBE.
since Lord Bacon started what he called the Inductive Method,
based on his own insufferable conceits, and the only trouble with the
entire Spencerian philosophy is that it is based upon lies.
Personally, the primal trouble with Herbert Spencer was and re-
mains, that his eyes, by nature, look toward the bridge of his nose,
and not out upon the world-wide beneficence of Nature's everlasting
and bountiful provisions.
Properly developed, there are means of subsistence in the territory
of the United States alone for ten hundred millions of men, and yet,
imder our present and recent methods of development and finance,
about one million out of the sixty millions of people now in the
United States are constantly out of work and in dread of starvation.
It is not that the means of subsistence have failed or can fail, but
that our governors and their dictators are very largely rascals and
narrow headed fools.
*******
Second in order, but not in degree of stupidity, we reproduce the
eloquent words of George Zurcher, said to be Rev. Father Zurcher,
priest at Buffalo, N. Y. Listen to Zurcher's woes:
"The triumphant gloating over the blow which struck Keane
and the tyrannical threats at Keane's disciples ought to place the
friends of American ideas on the offensive instead of the defen-
sive. The blustering braggadacio and rude menaces to degrade
the leaders of the American party might emanate somewhat ap-
propriately from Cahensly organs and Tammany chieftains. If
the apostles of foreign ideas and their allies are wise they will not
celebrate their victory too soon, as was done at Trenton a century
ago by the Hessians, who had been hired to plant foreign ideas on
American soil with the sword."
It would be difficult even for Zurcher to formulate a paragraph
stuffed with more bombastic and asinine falsehood than the one
just quoted.
In the first place there has been no " triumphant gloating " over
the fact that Zurcher aims at but utterly misrepresents. In the next
place no sane man has ever heard of " the blow that struck Keane,"
that is, nobody but Zurcher, and he probably heard it through one of
Edison's talking machines, mistaking the " Marseillaise Hymn " for
the vibrations of " the blow that struck Keane."
Poor Zurcher, don't get so mad, nobody is hurt. "Keane"
is better off, and " the blow that struck " him — that is, the most
GLOBE NOTES. 109
kindly and gentle words of removal from Leo XIII — has given Dr.
Conatty an opening for pedestalization. The Church will not split
because " Keane " has gone where he will say more prayers and make
fewer speeches.
In the next place there have been no " tyrannical threats at Keane's
disciples," and this man Zurcher must be beating the air. Perhaps
he needs the exercise, and he certainly needs lessons in English com-
position.
In the next place, and in God's name, who are "Keane's dis-
ciples? " I have never heard of them. Perhaps Zurcher is one of
them; perhaps he is the only one; but he certainly reflects no credit
upon his master.
In the next place, what does Zurcher mean by " American Ideas,"
and their " friends," and what is all this about putting " the friends
of American ideas on the offensive," etc., and what does this man
Zurcher mean by " blustering braggadocio and rude menaces, to de-
grade the leaders of the American party," etc., and which are the
" Cahensly organs?" And who are "the apostles of foreign ideas
and their allies " in the Catholic Church in America?
In a word, is this man Zurcher clean crazy? Had not the new
Bishop of Buffalo better get a commission in lunacy to report on
him? And if he is not crazy, is he not ashamed to wear the name and
robes of priestly office and still to use such ignorant, dastardly and
pernicious language as I have quoted.
Let me put it in another light. Was not Jesus of Nazareth a
foreigner, even a Jew? Were not the apostles foreigners? Is not
Leo XIII a foreigner? and his Grace Martinelli? Is not every idea,
every principle, every truth of Catholic or other Christianity that is
worth holding, of foreign birth? Is there any real foreigner in the
Christian Church? Who is Zurcher? Where did he get his name?
Can he form it etymologically out of Judas and Benedict Arnold?
And, in the name of eternal reason, what does this scapegrace cleric
mean by " American ideas," in the old and indestructible system of
Roman Catholic belief and morality?
The best Americans I have known these last forty years admit
that, outside of certain material inventions, there is not an Amer-
ican idea extant at this hour that is worth a chew of tobacco.
Is Zurcher a Catholic or an A. P. A. in disguise? Won't the
Bishop look after Zurcher? In politico-moral or religious philoso-
110 THE GLOBE,
phy, the American idea, as far as it can be differentiated from an-
cient " foreign " ideas, is supposed to be this, that a fool is as good
as a wise man, and for political purposes a little better; that a
respectable thief is the best form of a Protestant Christian; that
for pious purposes immersion, or a plunge bath, is infinitely preferable
10 a shower bath or sprinkling; that a water-fed, conceited dyspep-
tic, like Doyle, of the Paulists, for instance, is ten times more of a
saint than a wine drinker like Jesus, St. Paul, or his friend Timothy;
that public school education with God and morality and manners
left out, is far preferable to parochial and convent school education
with God and morality and manners made prominent features of
everyday instruction; that do unto others as others do unto you is
a vast improvement on the golden rule usually credited to the Saviour
of the world, and if Zurcher is bent on introducing any of these
American ideas into the Catholic Church, to take the place of the
Hebrew, Christian, and Eoman ideas that have dominated it these
last eighteen hundred years, I sincerely hope that the lightnings of
heaven may strike him, or that a mule may kick him, or that he may
be drowned at sea, caught up in a whirlwind, broken on the wheel,
held in the stocks to rot in silence, whipped at the cart's tail, made to
eat crow, or stifled to death between the pillows of his own crass and
impertinent ignorance before he succeeds in his Americanizing
schemes.
« « * « « « *
More than a year ago, when the press, the prelates, and the poli-
ticians of the country were nearly all crazy over the Venezuelan
question, and well nigh unanimous in favor of a war with England,
the Globe, almost alone among first-class publications, asserted
that the Cleveland-Olney war-cry was an electionering dodge that
would find its quietus before last year's campaign was fully under
way; that there would be no war; that the presidential campaign
would not be fought on international or diplomatic grounds, that
it would be a campaign of tariff and finance, and that if the Repub-
licans, flushed with their victories of 1804-95, should put up a man
like McKinley, and so revive the tariff issues, and once more involve
the whole country in the throes of uncertainty over this question;
and, above all, should they try to commit the nation to the gold
standard at the dictation of the money lenders of Europe and New
York, the Democrats, spite of their perpetual asininity as managers
OLOBE NOTES, 111
of the Government, would have a good chance of carrying the presi-
dential election.
So far the Globe's position has proven the true one, and spite of
all the rascally methods of the McKinley gold-bugs, their lying
about silver, their organizing of a third party of sound money Demo-
crats, etc., the chances of the Democratic party, led by Mr. Bryan,
were so good that he came within a few hundred thousand votes of
being elected.
I am a Republican of the Eepublicans; never have voted for a
single name on a Democratic ticket in my life; but I am sick of see-
ing the G. 0. P. ruled by a set of foreign money lenders; and I am
now for free silver and a Democratic victory in 1900.
If there had been any honesty in the third party movement, if
the gentlemen at the head of the movement had really been concerned
about sound money and the welfare of this country, much as I
might differ with their views, I could and would have respected
their motives, but their scheme was so openly corrupt, their motives
so base and mercenary, their methods so undemocratic, un-American,
unpatriotic, and so subversive of all the sounder principles of polit-
ical and national existence, and their misrepresentations of Mr.
Bryan and the true democracy of the country so base and premedi-
tated, that to do all this and call themselves honest money men, or
honest men in any sense, was so absolutely ludicrous and infamous
that only slaves and fools can be led by the nose with the strings they
are holding.
Mr. Bryan, Senator Tillman, Governor Altgeld, Wharton Barker,
Senator Teller, and hosts of other able men, at the head of the Bryan
and free silver movement, are not anarchists or Populists, or fools.
They are among the ablest politicians and public men before this
country to-day. Beside them, Cleveland and Quay and McKinley
and Ben Harrison and Hobart are mere pygmy leaders, small fry,
sprats, and spawn, seeking only grub for themselves at whatever
gold-laden hook may dangle in their way.
Moreover Bryan & Co., as named, are Democrats, constitutional
Democrats. The letter and spirit of our constitution are with them,
the history of the country and the Democratic and RepubHcan leg-
islation of the country are with them. They are the true Americans
of the present and the true Americans of the future.
Personally, I am not much of a constitutionalist. I have seen the
old parchment trod on to advantage time and time again, but these
112 THE GLOBE.
men are constitutional and historic Democrats, and the would-be
scare lest they should repudiate our debts and ruin our credit, is not
worth the credence of a Yankee spinster, much less of the sensible
men of the nation.
In closing these Globe Notes I desire to emphasize the fact that
the Globe Eeview, like other periodicals, is sent to subscribers
year after year until we have their explicit order to discontinue the
same, and that in the eyes of the law they are responsible for the
debt thus incurred until they have ordered the magazine discon-
tinued, and though I may not press my claims upon slow payers and
delinquent payers and non-payers, my consideration for their per-
sons, or my charity of principle, does not lessen their obligations in
the least, or make those any less scoundrelly who have promised to
pay and still do not pay.
At the same time I send my sincere thanks to the many kind
friends who, in response to a suggestion in the last Globe, have made
their subscriptions for this year $5.00 instead of $2.00, and I sin-
cerely hope that an additional two hundred subscribers will be
moved to do this after receiving this number of the Globe.
With malice toward no one and with charity for all, we propose
to go on as we began, and to make a magazine that shall everywhere
command the undying love of its friends and the respect, though
hatred, of its foes.
William Henby Thornb.
THE GLOBB.
^O. XXYl.
JUNE, 1897.
THE RECONCILER.
Lay Sermons by an Ex-Peeacher.
Texts— 2 Corinthians, Chap. 5, "Verse 19 : "God was in Christ recon-
ciling the world unto Himself." — Isaiah, Chap. 63, Verse 1 : "I that
speak in righteousness, mighty to save."
These two brief selections from the holy Scriptures especially
when taken in connection with their surrounding thoughts and
words, are pregnant with the fundamental dogmas of Christianity.
It is not my purpose, however, to enter into any discussion of these
dogmas. That is not the work I have set out to do in these lay
sermons. I accept all the dogmas of the Catholic Church without
questioning them, and I leave all discussion of said dogmas to those
whom the Church recognizes as the proper persons to discuss them.
Mine is a humbler mission, namely, to select and give prominence
to such beautiful and inspiring thoughts as might suggest them-
selves to any serious persons while perusing these central essences of
God's eternal redemption, whereby, our world, though slowly, is
surely being transformed into the likeness of heaven's incarnate and
eternal love. In a word the subject suggested to me by these united
Scriptural texts is the might or greatness of Jesus as seen in His
power or powers of reconciliation. Accepting all that the Scriptures
say of Him, and accepting all that the Church has declared as to its
interpretation of these Scriptures, I would linger awhile in admiring
adoration before this star of God's eternal dawning and note its
VOL. VII.— 8.
114 THE GLOBE.
influence upon all the mornings, all the nations, and all the tides
of time.
That some great reconciler, some supreme ministry of wise and
loving, uniting, harmonizing power was needed in our world and is
still needed is the universal conviction of all thinkers, poets,
prophets, and has been thus time out of mind.
Without presuming to have solved the subtle meanings of the
causes of the fact the humblest as well as the wisest observers of
human phenomena, ever since the dawn of creation, have seen and
admitted that something, somewhere at the very roots of life, had
gone radically wrong — so wrong that from the earliest days till now
the human race has been and still is as a kingdom or a household
divided against itself, perpetually presenting a panorama of interne-
cine, bitter and bloody warfare: man at war with himself: brother
at war with brother: nations at war with one another: even Chris-
tians of the same creed and family and communion, plotting to in-
jure and destroy one another, until, even in our day, each man and
each nation, acts, as perforce of self-defense, like an armed warrior
suspicious that his neighbor may rob him, destroy his character or
take his life, and all this at the same time, acting alike as cause and
effect separating us from allegiance to and from communion with our
own highest ideals of the central soul of the universe and the sacred-
est laws of existence — in a word, shutting our souls, our hearts and
faces away from and out of communion with the one eternal God.
For we must not forget that it was disloyalty to our primal obliga-
tions to those laws of justice that make for peace between man and
his neighbor that lost us our ability of communion with God.
Explain or shirk these primal facts how you will, we cannot any
of us deny the universal fact of internal and external conflict — reach-
ing not only to man and to all national existence, but to all the works
of man.
All that he does bears in its bosom the seeds of its own friction and
eventual decay. His art is tainted with every form and expression
of limitation, lust and selfishness. There is aye a rift in the lute of
his rarest song. The greatest human saints have mostly been mon-
sters of conflict, and some of them of unusual early vices.
In truth this discord reaches to and rules in the natural world:
animals of all families are only a little less selfish and brutal and un-
forgiving, quarrelsome, unprincipled, plotting, and mutually de-
structive than men; until as the great apostle put it, long ago — the
THE RECONCILER. 115
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain and anguish until
now — waiting — Yea waiting the touch of a vanished hand that shall
appease its wrath, set the sweet springs to flowing, wake the sweet
keys to music, inspire loving and gentle thoughts, lead the will in
kindness, the mind to truth, bring all souls to see in each other the
better self, and by some patient and eternal kindness of ministry lead
this wandering, weary, warring world back to its long lost peace, its
long lost power of duty, its long lost benignant and omniscient God.
Upon this theme alone we might write a hundred sermons. Life
is so full of its own sorrow and warfare that to speak or sing is to
betray one's broken heart.
All the prophets have felt it and wept over it. We are shapen
in iniquity, bom to sorrow as the sparks fly upward; opposition, pain
and anguish beset our birth. The first utterance of the child is a cry
of pain, the friction of the harsh air of our world is too severe for
the visitant from the home of its mother's enfolded love. At every
step of human progress or of human digression, there is an opposing
force. A danger seen and unseen haunts each life to its close. The
bravest admit the fear and cowardice of their own souls, dread the
shadows of death, and tremble before crossing to that bourne whence
no traveler returns.
In a word all life is a conflict surrounded with danger, and death
is the universal master before whom all of us are trembling slaves.
0! for the hand that can break these chains, 0! for the soul that
can set our souls to loving. 0! for the voice that can say to all the
world — " Peace, be still."
It is this hand, this soul this voice of eternal reconciliation that
I would re-unveil to you in these poor words of mine.
All the old Hebrew prophets dreamed of ^ and longed for such a
reconciler, all the priests of the old Hebrew ministry felt and knew
that their sacrificial offerings, their daily prayers were but typical
of some world-known sacrifice, some Messiah of eternal comfort that
should one day break through the arching heavens of eternal beauty
and become the central beauty, the central helper and healer of the
woes of mankind.
Plato and the deeper-minded Greek philosophers felt and taught
that only some strange love-enamored God-man of incomprehensible
wisdom and power could span the gulfs of human ignorance, pene-
trate the depths of human darkness, anguish and conflict, and by
some as yet unknown ministry of love and wisdom, perhaps of suffer-
116 THE GLOBE.
ing and death, make the heart of Grod known again and in ways un-
dreamed of, lift the shame-faced broken heart and life of man to
a new communion with the eternal ideal of love and wisdom and
justice, which somehow and everywhere still haunted the wandering
wayward heart of mankind. All the religions of the East were beau-
tiful human efforts of noble founders to span this gulf of separation
between what men actually were in their daily lives and what the
better souls of each age and nation longed to be.
According to the apostles of early Christianity — the eternal — the
living God — in the fullness of time — that is, in their own day — sent
forth His Son — bom of virgin, bom under the law — a perfect God-
man — perfect God and perfect man, whose one mission was, through
a life of loyalty to God's eternal law of love, and through a death
of infinite kindness and of infinite sacrifice for all sin, and of infinite
winning and wooing power upon all the hearts of all the nations of
men should and would accomplish this old world dream and world
longing for peace and unity with God. Out of all this came the
Church which for nineteen hundred years has been battling though
often through broken lights and deluded human souls for the eternal
establishment of the truths for which Jesiis died and in loyalty to
which the apostles and many martyrs have shed their blood.
With all this history I have nothing to do in this discourse. I
take my place beside the parents that watched the birth of Jesus,
beside the disciples that saw in Him the Messiah, the Son of the liv-
ing God, beside the millions of loving souls that, in all nations to-
day, following in the footsteps of His early disciples, looking into the
glorious life of poverty and love their Master lived, looking into His
agonized face on Calvary; looking into the prints of the nails that
cracified and pierced His trembling, human flesh; looking into the
C'pen heavens that caught Him back to their own and His own realms
of glory; and looking into the conquering strides of His majestic
soul through all the conflicts of these nineteen hundred years, and
saying mih. all His followers — " My Lord and my God " — I would
give your reasoning, your admiring souls some glimpses of those
eternal laws of life and victory on the basis of which and in harmony
with which He has accomplished and is accomplishing the world
dream of all the longing and broken hearts of all the ages of mankind.
And I may say that the years seem rife and ripe for this among the
nations of our time.
Only recently secular newspapers reach me with headlines as fol-
THE REGONGILEB. 117
lows: — " Christ coining back again." France, they say, having tried
a hundred yeare of Voltaire atheism, and of Hugoistic, poetic skep-
ticism, and having found them wanting in all the solid principles
upon which the hopes and foundations of souls and nations must be
erected, is returning to Christ — trying to woo and win Him back
again into its heart, its history, its homes, but, 0! the anguish that
first must be endured!
John Fiske, of Boston — ^the latest and ablest spokesman of the
modem evolution of Emersonian and other more or less thinly di-
luted effervescence of ancient and effete Arianism, Socinianism and
so-called Unitarianism — ^has declared in favor of a re- welcome of
Jesus, the evident master spirit of all the human ages.
Even that poor renegade, blatherskite son of a Calvinistic parson —
Bob Ingersoll, advocates what he conceives to be the moral and
loving spirit of Jesus; without ever dreaming, however, in either case
what his mastery over a human soul, once really admitted, forever
afterwards eternally means.
After being twenty years out of the Christian ministry perusing
all theories and all forms of religious belief to find their kernel and
true meaning, I returned voluntarily and gladly to the logical, ra-
tional defense of Jesus, as the clear divine teacher, Master and Sav-
iour of the world — and this without other motive or motives than
the force of absolute reason as based upon a comparative study of
all the master spirits of all the nations of mankind. And long before
T was blessed with Catholic faith, I had set myself the task of re-
newed teaching of the spirit and life and death of this mighty soul
as the one and only hope of the broken and bleeding heart of the
world.
But why all this enthusiasm alike of the souls that have never
doubted and of the souls and the nations that may have wandered
far from this central sun of the infinite moral universe?
There must be a reason for it all, a reason clear as the simplest
truth of mathematics — a reason independent of mere faith in au-
thority, and a reason that would re-establish that faith to-morrow
should the authority in. whole or in part by any human pride or
possible blunder, be broken on the wheel and cease to wield its power.
I think the eternal reason of Christ's power, the reason that would
win the mind of ages should His present official Church prove false
and recreant — a. thing out of mind and impossible — still is this —
that by the very constitution of His nature, by the very molding
118 THE GLOBE,
of His being; by the harmonized elements that went to make up
that being; by the harmonized and perfect loyalty of His own will
to the perfectly harmonized essences and qualities of His own ideal
being, by the perfect yielding of His entire harmonized divine and
human existence to the first, last and highest ideal of all divine and
human love and duty; in a word, by the absolute, inwardly reconciled
perfections of perfect divine and human existence. He was, He be-
came, and must forever remain the supreme reconciler between man
and man, between God and man and through this eternal truth of
nature be the natural, supernatural master of the world. I am not
preaching a theory or a dogma, but stating a fact that is as legible
and simple as the fact that two and two make four.
In a word, I find that, as a matter of human history, anywhere in
any sphere, in any nation of mankind, that a human soul is eventu-
ally held great, held in reverence, sometimes to idolatry, in the
exact proportion that he has reconciled in his own individucility and
expresses in his natural life the greatest number of the highest men-
tal, moral and spiritual faculties of our race.
The vast majorities of our fellow-men are mere pawns upon the
chess-board of existence; puppets in the world dramas molded and
moved by a few master hands; privates in the great armies of the
world's eitemal battle-fields; other thousands are but jumping jacks
and blue-jays, nesting where finer wings and better hearts have
builded; still other thousands are slaves of some superior intelligence
sold to the master spirits of our political hells; priests at the altars
of a thousand cults and creeds; others again are largely apes, bears,
dogs, beasts of burden, donkeys, foxes, rats and thieves — nevertheless
in all of these millions there are elements of human lovingness, and
no man is to be despised.
Yet when you understand the secrets of the higher souls that i-ule
our states, our armies, our churches and our nations how few are
there, who, for their own inherent God-given or acquired and har-
monized qualities of mind and soul that any thinking man volun-
tarily reveres.
The great generals of the armies of the ages have simply been
legalized wholesale murderers — hence — but leading factors in the
endless and bloody conflicts of which we have spoken, and which
the true reconciler has come to end forever.
The great philosophers of ail the nations — what utter and flimsy
dreamers are they.
THE RECONCILER. 119
Plato was a great philosopher and a moral coward — the puppet
of a stupid king.
Socrates was not only a great philosopher, but a moral hero, still
without any spiritual aggressive sight or noble feeling, hence only
a martyr of fate in a languid, aged way.
Sophocles was a greater philosopher than either and had besides
©ome real grasp upon the daily actual struggle of existence, hence
I have always held him as the greater man of the three. But they
were all Grod's chosen vessels of light and wisdom compared with
the military murderers, millionaires and kings that held themselves
superior in their days.
Time would fail me were I to speak only of the leading minds
of the nations of ancient and modem times in illustration of the
truth I am trying to bring home to you, — ^namely — ^that greatness
of manhood does not consist in greatness of the powers of butchery,
or of intrigue, or of acquiring wealth, or of dreaming philosophy,
or of kingly honors and position, but supremely in a clear and lucid
mind allied to a pure and kindly heart and conscience, in harmony
■with eternal justice and in such use of these in harmonized imity as
shall impart similar qualities of being and life to one's fellow-men.
Napoleon was a demon of designing intellect and of cold-blooded
butchery; Bismarck was a monster of intellectual intrigue, but of
absolute, unprincipled cruelty, and 'an utter lack of ail sense of justice
between man and man or man and G-od.
Disraeli was a foxy schemer for holes in which were the luxuries
of existence, but without moral force enough to drive a pin- wheel;
Gladstone a shining weather-cock of wordy inconsistency forever
posing as the friend of truth and justice without ever having learned,
or seriously suffered, or tried to leam what truth and justice were
and are.
Carl3de was the supreme intellect of the British civilization of his
day, surcharged with a conscience as grand as that of St. Paul, but
with a hardness, a harshness and a crudeness of soul — 'allied, how-
ever, with a childlike tenderness that made him alike the mental
ruler and the dark enigma of his day and generation. Emerson
was a faintly burning taper fit to adorn the very altars of God, but
with no blood of the martyrs in 'him, such as would crowd the very-
holy of holies with the incarnate sacrifice of daring and deathless
love.
I am only touching a few of the leading souls of ancient and mod-
120 THE GLOBE.
ern times to recall to your minds their immense gifts and their piti-
able lackings as master forces in the dreamed-of reconciliation of
the world.
Newman and Manning were far smaller minds, but with richer
spiritual gifts. Leo XIII. approaches nearer to some of the great
Protestant intellects of these last one hundred years, and is perhaps
in our century the nearest approach to utter greatness of being —
that is, to greatness of intellect, applied to highest uses; of greatness
of heart consecrated to sweet and noble and human ends, of chastity
of will and life, wielded for highest objects of our humanity — still
with a certain unheroic attitude that has kept him inside the safe
walls of the Vatican, when, had he been of a higher martyr-mould,
he might have conquered a thousand foes in his own land and ours
that now sport in the luxury of ill-gotten wealth, and of intrigue,
as if these could ever be used in the service of God. Do not forget
that compromise with hell is never reconciliation with God.
Mohammed and the founders of Asiatic religions were but crude
warriors and dreamers beside some of the men I have mentioned,
and so, by actual comparison, now as long ago, it appears that no
man who has ever lived, can approach in consciousness, in intent,
in heart, in will, in life, in death, to the one Supreme divine and
human Master who was God with us — ^heavenly of thought and
purpose, heart and life; human in absolute tender regard for every
true and human impulse of existence; not above eating and drink-
ing with the publican, familiar, forgiving and helpful with the har-
lot; unstained by and healing with the leper, divine and miraculous
in presence of the blind, victor in the face of death, superior to kings
in His life and master of death in His death. King of Kings, Lord
of Lords, and yet an humble, submissive, loyal and lonely man.
That art alone is true art which catches the sunlight and glory
of the heavens and reproduces them in the canvas of the painter,
or that w!hieh catches the radiant soul of man and weaves it into
the portrait or into the hard and lifeless marble; in a word that
brings heaven down to earth and saturates the elements of the world
with the eternal beauty and glory of the skies. In a word the true
artist is a true reconciler of heaven and earth.
Any well trained mechanic hand can sketch faces, bodies, blood,
stones and trees. It is the vocation of the artist to reconcile in his
work the spirit of eternity with the fleeting atoms of time. That
alone is true poetry which catches the spirit of the event, the comedy
THE RECONCILER. 121
or the tragedy or the commonplace episode of existence and so weaves
it into the song that you feel and understand, as if by lightening,
the soul of the event described.
Any Walt Whitman or Watson Gilder can give you the detail of
the human body, of a battle, of a steam engine, or a prairie, if he
has once seen the same, but only a Shakespeare can make his Pros-
peros and Mirandas reveal the inmost workings of their subtlest
souls to you, and laugh while you ai*e weeping. It is the art of the
master hand to make you feel the throbbings of his own or of the
immortal eternal soul of things; and the power to do this comes of
a combined and harmonized, reconciled multitudinous infinitude of
forces and energies first of all in his own concrete and concentrated
heart and soul.
If men better understood the real laws and conditions of human
greatness they would more readily, beautifully and gladly compre-
hend the harmonized supernal and ineffable greatness of Jesus the
Son of God.
Should another Mohammed arise in our time he would be cut
to pieces and sunk in the infamous sea of his own madness, .before
he could call his followers to prayers over the victims of his blood-
stained sword.
Should another Gaudama or Buddha arise in our time he would
not make as much noise as the healer Slattery or Evangelist Moody.
Indeed, our modem writers would take him for a fool unless he
charged a hundred dollars a lecture, for his conversations on religion
or settled down like Talmage to a lucrative position under the
shadow of legislative protection.
These are among the pigmies of great men, and yet we give them
honor or pretend to, while failing utterly to comprehend the simple
but Eternal principles of greatness that have made Jesus Master of
the world.
It was not simply because He was God or Divine, that He has won
the hearts of millions of all nations of the world. It was because
He was so absolutely and tenderly human, as well as Divine, that
your heart and mine beat in mutual adoration of His Divinely human
and chastened soul.
God had been God from all eternity, and the laws of justice are
as eternal and unchangeable as His Being or Will, yet through all
nations and ages men had not risen to any rational love of, or obedi-
ence to the Eternal God, but from the day the birth of the Divine
122 THE GLOBE.
made all humaa motherhood sacred as God's own Being, and every
human child a possible saint nurtured and cultured into the image
of that face and life which have encircled human art with glory,
made it possible for the hardest outcast to gain the angelic heights
of eternal peace and joy — there is an enthusiasm of God in our
world, that all the demons in hell and all the atheists in existence
can neither break nor mar.
It is only a question of time till the proportion of Judases grows
less, and the proportion of Johns and Marys and Pauls and Stephens
grows more numerous and then the flood-gates shall be opened and
tlie inward flowing waves of eternal faith and eternal peace shall
cover the world with the seamless garments of truth and love. In
view of this mighty work of the ages do we wonder that this same
Jesus said " Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God," though this seems to have reference mainly to
those who act as peacemakers between man and man, but there is
a higher mission for the supremely exalted soul, namely, that of
making peace between man and God.
How fearful and heart-rending are the simple estrangements,
quarrels and divisions of our earthly lives. How blinding to the con-
science and withering to all principles and impulses of the higher
life are the divorces, the desertions, the disloyalties of husbands and
wives, of parents and children in these our own days; how hardened
are our lips and eyes and souls becoming in view of these modern
incipiencies of eternal hell; and how easy in view of all these crimes
that are taken for liberties and independence in our time, how easy
is it for all of us to forget our obligations to God the father of us all,
and to dream that each man, each child in fact is master of his own
destiny in days like these.
01 for a voice with the power of world-wide thunder, and yet
^^*ith the sweetness of Acadian music, to turn the tides of world
feeling into the channels of universal kindness and once more back
to duty and to God.
In all this world I know of nothing sadder than needless estrange-
ments between those who have been friends. In all this world I
know of nothing half so sad as estrangements and disloyalties be-
tween parents and children, but these are the universal happenings
of our daily lives, until modem society is lost to those finer feelings
of changeless, filial and parental love that only a generation ago
seemed the one ideal of all our civilized life.
THE BECONCILER. 123
0! for a new voice to re-utter the old commandment with promise
— ^honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in
the land the Lord thy God giveth thee; 0! for a new voice so divine
and so commanding that hearts of stone and steel may hear it saying
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind
and strength and thy neighbor as thyself."
Dear friends, believe me, no mere tyrannical ecclesiastical author-
ity can take the place of the eternal tenderness of divine Charity
and Justice. No conversion of a few wealthy pirates to a faith that
may make them more piratical and prejudiced than ever can do
much toward reconciling the broken chains of our mortal existence
or of reconcihng the rebellious hearts of men to God. There must
be dogma and there must be authority, but these must be uttered
and wielded in the spirit of justice, reason and love.
It is not a mere shifting of creeds that can do this. It is not
merely the words of absolution after confession that can do this —
much less is it, the horn-tooting of the Salvation Army that can
do this, or the preaching of Moody or the singing of Sankey; still
less is it the whining and damnable hypocrisy of your Wanamakers,
your Eoosevelts or your Parkhursts that can do this; still less is it
the political wire-pulling, land-grabbing and partisan speech-mak-
ing or writing of insatiably ambitious prelates that can do this.
These are all fire-brands, kindling numberless partisan and per-
sonal hotbeds and blasphemies and infidelities and divisions and an-
gers in the souls of men. Let us quit all this and know that as Jesus
is the only perfect incarnation and reconciliation of God and man
in His own person, and that as His teachings, example and life are the
only perfect means of reconciling enemies with one another and
man with God, so only as we keep close to the sacred motives of His
existence and follow the loving spirit of His life and death can we
become reconcilers of our fellow-men with one another or with God.
I know how difiicult it is to follow the line of life I am here indicat-
ing. I know from experience how difiicult it is and how often our
purposes and our actions fall short of our own ideals, but I am more
and more convinced that it is only as we keep steadily before us,
not merely some graven image of Christ or His cross of anguish,
but closely study the depth and sweetness and perfect glory of the
reason of His all-conquering life and death that we can hope to
follow Him or do any true work in His spirit or in His dear name.
I have searched the records of the ages and the nations. I havo
124 THE GLOBE.
studied the lives of the greatest men of all time and have lingered
with untold admiration over the lives and sayings of the prophets
and martyrs of old and of modern times, but the closer and more
loving my studies of any and all of them have been and are, the
more perfectly am I convinced that it is only by keeping constantly
in mind the perfect image and life of this divine man who while
bearing the heavens on His shoulders was daily lifting the world up
into His arms of stainless charity and eternal kindness that we can,
any of us do much in the line of His glorious undertaking.
Let me not be mistaken. It is not by trying to make God a goody-
goody, it is not by simply magnifying the suffering and sacrificial
element in the life of Jesus, much less is it in harping upon the
prevailing supposed virtues and glories of our modem American
civilization and taking it for granted that liars and scoundrels and
thieves are upright men and gentlemen.
As far as I can gather Jesus and His apostles, and the prophets
before them, never acted or taught in this" way. On the contrary
every teacher of truth, every true reconciler between the warring
factions of men, and between the wandering enemies of Grod and
truth must, first of all, have a clear perception of essential truth and
Justice and charity, and must not be a coward in his definitions of
these.
In a word the true peacemaker between man and man, or man and
God must found all his thought and all his action and all his words
in eternal truth and justice before he can take one valid step in
the true work of reconciliation; and in order to do this he must
have founded, under God, all the motives and all the actions of his
own soul and life in the roots and on the eternal adamant of God's
justice as regards his own affairs; and until a man has done this I
hold that it makes no difference whether he be prelate, priest, editor,
writer, merchant or what not, he is absolutely useless alike as a
teacher or a would-be reconciler of men with men, ar of men with
God.
In a word it was not mere sweetness and light that made Jesus,
the Kedeemer and Eeconciler of the world. It was sweetness and
light based upon and in eternal harmony with all the severest exac-
tions of the harsher and eternal justice of God: that is, because He
was this, and lived this, and died for this rather than yield one iota
to sentiment, cowardice or the devil, that He became the one eternal
and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and the one eternal reconciler and
Saviour of the world.
TUE RECONCILER. 125
This is but a poor, imperfect showing of the thoughts that have
been grouping themselves in my mind these last forty years, on this
the master theme of all existence, of all time and all eternity.
I have tried to avoid every technical point of dogma involved in
this great and glorious work of turning the averted face of man from
his neighbor and of man from his God. I have tried rather to cut
into the very heart of the theme and expose the bleeding fibres of
eternal loyalty that are necessary to the great work in view.
Any trickster can bring about a compromise between divided
truths, divided friends, or between man and God.
Our national Constitution was aptly called by the old abolitionists
a compromise with death and a compact with hell; and during the
eighty-five years that passed between the writing of that Constitution
and our civil war the wisest heads in this nation were perpetually
trying to make compromises between the North and the South re-
garding the eternal injustice of African slavery. Even up to the first
year of said war men could not give up the hope that some com-
promise might avert war and save the Union. Dear friends no com-
promise ever yet saved a soul or a nation.
Various discoveries of modem science, so-called, have brought
the different races and nations of the world nearer together as to
their physical and commercial relations, and much is made of these
discoveries in our time as if they really were of service in the higher
reconciliations and the peaceful relations of mankind.
I fail to see any evidence of moral elevation or of a mutual better
understanding by reason of these discoveries which have " annihi-
lated space " etc., and certainly not one of them has helped ia particle
toward reconciling man to his Maker.
In truth only the grace of God in Christ Jesus and His Church
can do this, hence my constant insistence that all teachers of religion
especially all priests should cease to prate about sociology and the
thousand subterfuges that modem civilization would substitute for
Catholic faith, and bend all their energies toward elucidating and
infusing the one eternal tmth that only in Christ and obedience to
His Church, can men or nations be reconciled to God.
The laws of justice are — Yea and nay. If you are serving the
devil with your left hand and signing crosses with your right, the
devil will see to it that your signs of the cross are of no avail.
If you are posing as a reformer, a progressive saint, an ideal Amer-
ican Catholic patriot, a colonizer for the good of the poor, and all
126 THE GLOBE.
the while denying your heart's own simple obedience to the laws
and teachings of Christ and His Church, you may fool a few of your
claquers, but you cannot fool the Almighty or the devil who has you
in charge.
True reconciliation even of one's lower with one's better heart
and conscience often means that you fire the truth right into your
owTi eyes, though it blinds and staggers you — Yea, it often means
that you pluck out your right eye; cease to take ill-gotten gains,
cease to plan for that which by the law of eternal justice you have
no right to seek, though only God may see you, and above all, would
you be a reconciler of others you may have to preach such truth as
will take your life, but out with it, and like your crucified but risen
Master, be ready to die; for after all, it is death in loyalty to truth
that lifts all suspicion from your own brow and brings men around
you in tears of repentance and of love. It is death for truth's sake
that has ever weaved the halo of glory about the brows of saints and
martyrs, and the man who dreams that the need of such methods
of reconciliation has passed away has gotten but a little distance into
the mercy, the mystery or the integrity of God.
In a word the true reconciler first meets all the demands of eternal
justice in his own life and death; holds to every phase of divine
truth and charity in his own utterances; is gentle with the poor, the
lowly, the suffering, severe with the proud, the conceited, the
haughty, blends the light and glory of Heaven with all the sombre
shadows of earth, is great of intellect, great of heart and conscience,
wields all his energies for the real and exalted good of mankind, and
then if he dies on the cross, the scaffold or in a dungeon of blackest
insignificance all the forces of omniscient and omnipotent Deity are
pledged to give him victory to the utmost compass of his consecrated
soul.
If I at all understand the case it was because Jesus of Nazareth
met all these demands in His own life and death that He has be-
come the peerless prince of God's eternal redemption and is slowly
winning the willing and loving allegiance of all the loyal and true
hearts of the human race.
Men have minds and waste them over shadows that lure toward
greed of gain; hearts, and break them over the poisoned foun-
tains of seduction lust and pleasure; consciences and blast them
over a thousand volcanoes of subtle and open wrong. The true man;
the true reconciler has not only hitched his wagon to a star and is
FROM OXFORD TO ROME. 127
following its leading, he is absolutely in league with the soul that
formed the stars and has them in His keeping. Thus is he a child
of heaven — ^in the highest sense a Son of God— speaking in right-
eousness, dying, in love for truth's sake, and through this highest
act of immortal life becoming a mighty Saviour — ^the true reconciler
between man and man and between man and God.
William Henry Thornb.
LOVEST THOU ME?
" Lovest thou Me ? "—Oh Fount of Love Divine !
Oh Heart of God ! art Thou constrained to plead
That I should love Thee ? Jesu ! I have need
Of pardon, pity; this said heart of mine
Yearns, evermore, for that sweet love of Thine,
So freely given: many a thought, and deed.
And word of mind have caused Thy Heart to bleed
Dear Lord ! afresh; yet for Thy love I pine,
I faint, I languish: dost Thou ask, once more,
" Lovest thou Me ? " What answer dare I make ?
" Thou knowest that I love Thee," — ^though full sore.
For sin of mine Thy loving Heart doth ache.
Oft and again I grieve Thee, — I implore,
Grant me to love Thee better; Jesu ! make
My heart Thy dwelling, for Thine own Heart's sake.
Hionireal. Francis W. Grey.
FROM OXFORD TO ROME.
The Oxford or Tractarian Movement seems to have been a sort of
spiritual reaction, of mysterious origin.
Doubtless, its immediate exciting cause lay in the action of Par-
liament and the Reform Bill of 1833, which swept away at a blow
ten Irish sees and constituted a direct attack upon the Church of
England, an attack which menaced her liberties and her very life.
That their attachment to her should have led a group of devoted
men to rally in defense of her rights is not in the least surprising; —
128 THE GLOBE.
but when we consider how quickly the movement went beyond this,
reaching out eagerly toward the ancient principles of authority and
catholicity, which to the ultra-Protestant wing of the Establishment
were only anathema; and how these principles have been working
invisibly ever since, like the leaven, which will not cease to work —
and we have our Lord's word for it ! — " till the whole is leavened; " —
we cannot fail to see the divine as well as the human element in the
change thus wrought.
Some writers maintain, and with reason, that the question of Ro-
man Catholic emancipation had led to a closer study of Catholic
theology in England, in order to discover the real points of difference
between Catholics and Protestants, and that this study had modified
men's minds; but, apart from this, toleration, as a practical measure,
had commended itself to thoughtful people: a gentler spirit toward
their Catholic opponents had been quietly pervading the land, and
the publication of Keble's " Christian Year," in 1828, called general
attention to the beautiful sequence of Christian truth, which, in both
systems, the Roman and the Anglican, held honored place. Points
of union, such as this mutual observance of feasts and facts, being
emphasized rather than points of difference, the work of the poet,
with its sweet persuasion, counterbalanced the wrangling of adverse
theologians and proved effectual for good.
Yet, while these softening influences were falling on "men of
good-will," the French Revolution had been intensifjang evil. Its
destructive and disorganizing forces had entered England insidiously,
and become the latent, fermenting principles of the Whig policy of
the day. This party, once in power, had no scruple in assailing the
English Church. It struck, indeed, at her very heart. How could
true spiritual freedom be made to co-exist with State control of her
corporate life ? Such was the crucial question, then, as, in fact,
it is now.
Her victorious foes went even further. It was urged in Whig
circles that parliamentary councils should be empowered to revise
her liturgies and recast her Articles of BeUef. It was more than a
dispute over appointments and temporalities. It had trenched upon
higher things.
In this crisis, the authorities of the Establishment stood feebly
inactive. But thinking men everywhere were roused, protest arose
on all sides, men of all shades of belief, men of earnestness and sin-
cerity, sprang to the front, eager to defend the outraged cause.
FROM OXFORD TO ROME. 129
From the heai^t of this strong excitement came the " Oxford Move-
ment."
Its spirit was that of a generous defense of the English Church,
a wilhngness to stand by her and face her foes. And who better
fitted to deal with the points at issue than the trained scholars of her
noblest University ? So, at Oxford, the strife began.
On July 14, 1833, John Keble delivered his great discourse on
the " National Apostasy." It was a fiery protest against the sup-
pression of the Irish sees, a political measure supported by the Whigs
for purely political purposes. " It was also a challenge," says a recent
writer, " a summons to meet the new state of things face to face,
full as it was of immediate and imminent peril, — to consider how it
should be received by Christians and Churchmen, — and to study
the causes and significance of this hostile action by the Houses of
ParUament."
Among the throng that flocked to hear him was John Henry
Newman, already a man of note in his College. He saw, at a glance,
that Keble's address was the trumpet-blast for a rally, and stood
ready to become its leader. The first actual step in the great forward
movement was taken at Hadley, where a small caucus was held. Out
of this meeting came the " Tracts for the Times."
These famous essays appeared at Oxford during the years between
1833 and 1841. In most cases, Dr. Newman was their author, though
Keble aided in their revision. Other able writers joined them as the
years went by, drawn by sympathy with the new movement. Among
its principal promoters were R. H. Froude, a Fellow of Oriel; Rev.
Isaac Williams, Fellow of Trinity, author of the " Cathedral and
other Poems "; Rev. Hugh Rose, of Cambridge; Ward, Oakley and
others.
The Tracts, themselves, at the outset, were short essays,— some-
times mere notes, — designed to rouse the members of the Church
to a sense of the alarming position wherein she was placed. But
other and more important matters strode in. Tenets closely resem-
bling those of the Church of Rome were put forward, and the anony-
mous authors urged the restoration of High Church theology as held
by the Anglican divines of the seventeenth century.
The year succeeding the Hadley Conference passed quietly. New-
man was at this time Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford (which was also
the University Church), and its regular preacher.
His discourses supplied, as it were, a key to the Tracts, giving
VOL. VII.— 9.
130 THE GLOBE,
full explanation of their tendency and scope. The doctrines of
Apostolical Succession, Priestly Absolution, Baptismal Regenera-
tion, the Eeal Presence, the Authority of the Church and the value
of Tradition, which had long lain hid in the language of the Prayer-
book, were rescued from oblivion and shown as treasure trove. The
Tracts were widely read, and, plainly, doing their work. To all this
Newman's beautiful sermons brought most powerful aid. Intellect-
ually and spiritually, his sway over his fellow-men could not fail of
recognition.
Yet, what the new movement greatly needed, at this point, was
official support, the approval and sanction of some recognized au-
thority. This neither Keble nor Newman could give, since, as yet,
their fame had not overleaped University limits. Therefore, th6
adhesion of Dr. Pusey, Eegius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of
Christ Church, who joined the movement in 1835, was greeted with
great enthusiasm.
His influence was at once felt. " Under his direction,'* says one
authority, " the Tracts took on a different tone and shape. Instead
of being the brief and incomplete essays, which had previously ap-
peared. Tracts sixty-seven, sixty-eight and sixty-nine formed three
divisions of a Treatise covering more than three hundred pages.
From this time on the Tracts became serious and well-prepared pro-
ductions."
At this time, very nearly. Dr. Pusey issued his Tract, " On the
Benefit of Fasting " and the two previously mentioned, sixty-seven
and sixty-nine, " On Holy Baptism."
On all sides rose an outcry. It was asserted everywhere that these
uTitings, by men in authority, would eventually lead those concerned
in the effort from the AngHcan belief to the Roman Catholic fold.
In short, the movement was felt to be dangerous.
The first opposition appeared in 1838. The Bishop of the Diocese
entered complaint in the matter of the Tracts, yet failed to officially
demand their suppression. So the Tractarians went on their way.
Newman, himself, made the first break in their ranks. The next
year, 1839, found him seriously disturbed in mind. Thus far he had
been an earnest antagonist of the Roman Church. He was one of
those who transferred their support from Sir Robert Peel to Sir
Robert Inglis on occasion of the former's introducing the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill; and one object of the present Oxford. Move-
ment, as he well knew, was to antagonize the Romanizing as well
FROM OXFORD TO ROME. 131
as the Dissenting tendencies of the times hy restoring the primitive
and catholic character of the Church. Yet, now, doubt began to
cloud his soul.
And here, for the first time, we feel that the place whereon we are
standing is holy ground. Newman's spiritual struggles, after all is
said, are what give this matter of the Oxford Movement its vital and
human interest. The sensitive sympathizer would, indeed, give
thanks if that cup might have passed from him. The pathos of his
wonderful hymn, " Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom,"
is felt wherever it goes and the lines of sorrow on his face tell the
same story. They are not lines of bitterness, but of supreme grief —
overpassed indeed, through the Lord's mercy, but never to be effaced.
For Newman's was an intense nature, deep and strong, the last in the
world to throw off its religious allegiance, as one draws off a glove.
We cull from his biographers something of the story, — part of
the poor fraction, which is all they have to give. Only his Master
and Lord knows the whole. It is the secret of those heavenly places
whither His servant has gone to meet Him.
The first touch of power which he felt and recognized seems to
have been at the hand of Cardinal Wiseman.
" While reading the history of the Monophysites," says one nar-
rator, " a friend placed before him an article by Mgr. Wiseman, deal-
ing with certain " Anglican Pretensions." In this paper he found
a clue to the real difficulty of the Monophysites. For one instant the
veil was lifted and he comprehended " that the Church of Rome was,
after all, in the right.^' But the shadows fell over him anew and
sharply vexed with himself, he decided to depend, in future, wholly
upon the light of his own reason.
This momentary uneasiness of soul he mentioned to only two per-
sons. But he no longer spoke with the same clearness and confidence
as to the " value of the Anglican position."
After this experience, in the month of August, 1839, he ceased
to attack Rome as schismatic. His new teaching was that " Rome is
the Church and we, too, are the Church." This was the idea of his
article on " The Catholicity of the Church of England," issued in
January, 1840, — which his biographer describes as " the first-fruits
of restored spiritual peace within his soul."
Then, early in 1841, came the famous Tract number 90, which
drove the authorities of the University to open warfare. The Heads
of Houses, at Oxford, condemned it and the Bishop of Oxford called
132 THE GLOBE.
upon Newman to discontinue the publication, a request with which
he at once complied. Yet, in his letter to the Bishop on the matter,
although he tendered ready submission, — for Newman was in no
wise contumacious and too great a man to miss the grace of humihty,
— he calmly defended the positions assumed in his Tract and in the
series as a whole.
Tract No. 90 was designed to show that much Koman doctrine
might be held consistently with subscription to the Thirty-nine Ar-
ticles; that the Articles do not contravene Catholic teaching, — as
far as this coincides with that of the Fathers and the Primitive
Church; — ^that they only partially oppose Catholic dogma and are
mainly directed against certain special errors of Rome.
" But between the months of July and November," says the biog-
rapher, "in this same year, 1841, Newman received three blows
which crushed him to the earth. In the course of a translation from
Saint Athanasius " — a series of these versions had been issued, to-
gether with the Tracts, called a " Library of Translations from the
Greek and Latin Fathers," Newman editing, in conjunction with
Keble and Dr. Pusey, — "his old doubts started again to life. In
re-perusing the history of the Arians he came anew upon the truths
taught by the primitive Church. They stood out before him with
increased clearness and he was continually beset by his old thought,
that, ' after all, the Church of Rome was in the right.' "
He was suffering tortures from this dislocation of things, spirit-
ually, when the second blow fell.
The Bishops, one after the other, denounced the Tracts. In this
general Episcopal action Newman saw his condemnation.
Under the third blow he could no longer keep silence. It was in
regard to the famous bishopric of Jerusalem. He drew up a solemn
protest which he sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as to
his own Diocesan.
But Newman's career, in connection with the Oxford Movement
was over. He -withdrew to meditate in quiet upon his future course.
And he had many aJlied topics for meditation.
For he was in a net-work of difficulties. His influence over others
had become very great. The whole Tractarian movement circled
round him. Its supporters looked to him as its head: and any im-
portant decision on his part was liable to disorganize it or destroy
it altogether. Then, there were many young people under his care,
placed there by confiding Anglican relatives. He could not allow
FROM OXFORD TO ROME. 133
these to enter the Roman Church — as many of them were inclined
to do — unless his own convictions, on the whole matter, should grow
more clear. He could not lead -others toward a step which he was
not, himself, ready to take. Upon his College, upon the English
Church, upon the world of letters, even, his action would take effect.
His very strength as a leader and teacher made him weak at this
Juncture. The Valley of Decision was, to him, a valley of darkling
shadows.
" His soul," says the biographer, " was rent by attractions and re-
pulsions, at war with each other."
He could not go to Rome " on account of the honors paid to the
Virgin Mary and the Saints"
" His chief desire, nevertheless, was for union with Rome, as of
Church vdih Church."
His first action was to resign his position as editor of the British
Critic and it passed over into the hands of Ward and Oakley. This
review had been the chief organ through which these thinkers im-
posed their views on the Oxford party. Of Ward it has been said that
his writings always tended to establish a comparison between the
Church of England and the Church of Rome. As a general result,
tliis comparison grew more favorable to the claims of the latter —
claims that were far from losing force, as felt by these men amid the
on-rushing of events. As to Ward, personally, nothing can add to
the poetic tribute paid him by Lord Tennyson. In this elegant son-
net we find the generous analysis of friendship, expressed with great
beauty and alive with poetic power.
In 1843 the British Critic was discontinued, to be replaced by a
more moderate publication, the Christian Monitor, edited and di-
rected by Dr. Pusey.
It was now Pusey's turn to receive rebuke. In consequence of a
sermon on "The Holy Eucharist, a Comfort to the Penitent,"
preached before the University, he was suspended from preaching
by the Vice-chancellor for three years, on the allegation that his
language on the subject of the Real Presence was beyond what is
sanctioned by the Formulmdes of the Church of Englamd. Dr. Pusey
entered protest, however, and appealed to the teaching of former
English divines.
In the same year Newman reached two most important and sig-
nificant decisions; in February he wTote a formal retraction of all
the harsh and painful things he had said or written against the
134 THE GLOBE.
Church of Rome and in September he resigned the Vicarage of Saint
Clary's at Oxford.
The new Puseyite review raised much excitement and alarm.
Party susceptibilities grew more intense; there was war in the air.
Ward, however, rose to the height of the occasion. He went to
work at once and produced his famous book, " The Ideal of a Chris-
tian Church."
For six months the authorities took no official cognizance of its
publication; a committee, nevertheless, examined the work. A cer-
tain number of alarming propositions were culled from it and laid
before the entire Faculty.
Then, the authorities held session. "Ward's book was quickly con-
demned and he, himself, deprived of his University degrees.
The day of Ward's condemnation, — being that, also, of his book, —
February 13, 1845, marks a memorable point in this religious drama
of England.
" From this hour," says the Ecclesiastical Review, " it was plain
what would become of a goodly number of these men, full of virtue,
ability and learning, who but recently gave promise of remaining
forever valiant servitors of the English Church. If, up to this point,
there had been room to doubt, in many cases, whether they would
linger in her fold or not, this doubt could no longer exist. It was
now only a question of time, how soon they would break the bonds
which held them to that body and renounce their ancient allegiance.
"An infallible sign was showing what must needs be done by those
who had struggled so painfully — often, indeed, so pitiably — to keep
faith with God and conscience; on one side, they were invited to
come, — on the other, they were bidden with asperity of scorn, to go.
What resulted could be no secret to anyone."
During the autumn and the year ensuing, the friends, whose
names and faces had been so long familiar in Oxford, disappeared
from their places, withdrawing one after the other.
In September, 1845, Ward was received into the Catholic Church.
In October, Newman likewise sought admission. Later, Faber, Man-
ning, Spencer, Oakley, Morris and others followed.
The Oxford Movement had done its work. The results of that
work are facing us to-day.
The wave which swept Homeward was of priceless value to her
communion. It is a curious study of influence, as from one mind to
and upon another. Cardinal Wiseman, in some mysterious spiritual
FROM OXFORD TO ROME. 135
way, touched Newman; the latter, again, flung his wonderful power
over Faher, whose poems are touching the whole world — Anglicans,
Dissenters and Catholics alike — while his prose works form the best
of weapons for the Catholic cause; and thus we see the links forged —
the first few links — of an endless chain. The growth of the Koman
Church in England, of late, has been something phenomenal and the
seed sown at Oxford — how or why the Lord of the harvest alone
knows ! — in the hearts of Newman, Ward and Manning is still bear-
ing abundant fruitage.
Throughout the Anglican Church the power of the Oxford Move-
ment, though less direct, has been no less actual. The teaching of
Keble and Pusey, who remained within her pale, only brought it to
bear more fully on the men of their day and generation. It has been
and still is permeating her whole life, not alone in Great Britain but
throughout her world-wide empire. Even here, in the Episcopal
Church of the United States, its touch is daily felt. The number
of so-called "High Church^' Bishops has been steadily increasing
for the last twenty-five years; and what that means of spiritual
change among her laity and lower clergy is past human estimate.*
What will be the end of this silent change of attitude toward the
vital truths of the Oxford Movement, what this intimate molecular
alteration of feeling may bring about, at last, it is hard to tell. But
we may well thank God, every day, for its practical fruitage in self-
sacrifice, in larger measure of Christian giving, in sisterhoods and
brotherhoods — ^both unknown of old — in organized charities, in a
fuller ritual, in retreats and humilities of prayer.
That the outcome of a willing reception of Divine truths — as of
Absolution, the Real Presence and the like — should be the illumina-
tion of heart that leads to the reception of more truth, is to be ex-
pected; that more of Christ and more of grace should bring the
Anglican Church into more sympathy with those who know and
prize a Hke grace is to be hoped for; and the lesson of closer com-
prehension of each other and a deeper charity should come out of
it all — and to us all.
Gardiner, Me. Caeoline D. Swan.
* Within the past few weeks one of the ablest and most conscientious
representatives of this movement — Rev. Fr. Maturin of Philadelphia has
become a convert to Eoman Catholic faith. — The Editor.
136 THE GLOBE.
CARDINAL GIBBONS' NEW BOOK.
The Ambassador of Christ. By James Cardinal Gibbons, Arch-
bishop of Baltimore. Baltimore, New York, and London: John
Murphy & Company. 1896.
This book was sent to me by the publishers with a special request
that I would write a review of it, and I gladly comply because, after
a careful reading of the work, I find that I can, in the main, speak
well of it. I must say, however, that I have no sympathy with the
rhetorical unmixed laudations that various Catholic hack writers
have already heaped upon the Cardinal's excellent book, and if I at
all understand what seems to me to be the sweet simplicity and sin-
cerity of his nature, he is one of the last men on earth to derive any
pleasure from such fulsome and senseless flattery. In truth Cardinal
Gibbons has always seemed to me nearer akin to a select circle of
Protestant preachers who were among the friends and idols of my
own early ministerial life than to any of the Catholic prelates of our
time or of preceding times.
I refer particularly to such men as the Rev. Albert Barnes, an-^
the Eev. Dr. Boardman (Presbyterians of Philadelphia) and the Rev.
Dr. William Adams and Rev. H. B. Smith, also Presbyterians, of
New York, and the Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon — Congregationalist, of
New Haven — all of whom were still in their later prime about forty
years ago — ^and they were all learned men, gifted men, and of the
sincerest type of Christian life and orthodoxy. I may be pardoned
for adding here that between those men and the upstart impertinent
nobodies of the Parkhurst type — who occupy their old pulpits in
these days, there is such a gulf of descent that I often wonder what
this nineteenth century may yet come to if the present rate of fearful
ministerial degradation goes on.
It gives me pleasure to say in this connection that the reading
of Cardinal Gibbons' latest book has confirmed my good opinion of
the man. Nevertheless my criticism of his work will not be wholly
in praise.
The salient and striking points of the book — are first its beauti-
ful and exalted piety ; so evident and so sincere that none but sheer
blasphemers could question or do other than admire it.
CARDINAL GIBBONS' NEW BOOK. 137
Second — its easy familiarity with the sacred Scriptures and its apt
and copious quotations from the same ; and I hold that these points
alone are sufficient to commend the book as a safe and excellent
guide for the students — Catholic and Protestant — of the present and
of future generations. I think, moreover, that this last named feat-
ure of the Cardinal's work will more than anything else commend
it to the reverent attention of the Protestant worid.
For while it is true that the Church is older than the Scriptures it
is also true that it is only the apostolic and directly inspired Church
that is older than the Scriptures, and there is a strong and lurking
suspicion not only among ignorant Protestants, but throughout the
modern intellectual evolution of Protestantism that the Roman
Cathohc Church of these late centuries — without showing any proofs
of apostolic inspiration — ^is showing many proofs of a mistaken con-
sciousness of superiority to the Scriptures and a tendency to ignore
them.
In view of these Protestant notions — which I am by no means de-
fending— I look upon Cardinal Gibbons' new book as in some sense
a providential work inspired of heaven for the especial benefit of our
times.
Again there is a beautiful fluency in the composition which im-
plies that the Cardinal, with or without assistants, and though no
longer young, is growing clearer and stronger in his style as a writer.
The style is hardly to be called masterful. It frequently falls to the
commonplace and is partially lacking in literary dignity; but it is
sweet, lucid and mind-fastening by reason of other excellent quali-
ties already named. These are among the more praiseworthy prop-
erties of the book and it were easy to weave sentence after sentence
from numberless pages in justification of such praise.
Within certain familiar circles of classical scholarship the book is
also very apt in its quotations and references. The oratory of
Demosthenes, the rhetorical patriotism of Cicero, and the philosophy
of Seneca are all brought into the service of this latest eulogy of the
many excellencies that ought, and that — as a matter of fact — do
frequently adorn the lives and services of the Ambassadors of Christ.
I do not understand, however, that any or all of these points of
excellence mark any especial greatness of mind or any especial liter-
ary greatness on the part of the author — and I fancy the Cardinal
himself would be the last to claim such greatness in either line; but
the qualities named do show a chaste and beautiful Hfe, — which is of
138 THE QLOBE.
infinitely more value than literary genius, and they also show a pa-
tient, even, intelligent study of the Scriptures, in the spirit that gave
us the Scriptures, and for these reasons the book will serve as a
chosen land-mark of the scriptural learning and piety of the Amer-
ican Catholic hierarchy of our day.
My complaint with the book for other reasons will be just as em-
phatic as my praise of it, for the reasons named.
In some respects the preface to this book is the most important
part of it, and at the same time the most unsatisfactory part of it.
It is the most important, because it, more than any other portion
of the book, deals with one of the living if not burning questions of
our own day — namely — what is called "Americanism" in relation
to religion in general and to Catholic religion in particular; and it
is here — I think, that the Cardinal shows most palpably the limited
and local character of his intellect. The preface opens beautifully
as follows — "A pious, learned and zealous priesthood is the glory
of the Church of God." To this sentiment all earnest Protestants
as well as all true Catholics will respond, at once, with a hearty —
amen, and it must be admitted with gratitude that the Cardinal, in
the best chapters of his book, goes on to show in what this glory
consists and what beneficent service it renders to m'ankind.
He takes no cognizance of the well-known fact, however, that in
our times many thousands of intelligent American citizens — " pro-
gressive, scientific," etc., etc., are of the opinion that neither God
nor man has any real need of or use for this priesthood. Perhaps
he is not familiar with this fact — ^and, perhaps, his ignorance of it
may have much to do with what seems to me his over-estimate alike
of the " piety, fairness and justice " of the American people.
Here, for instance, are expressions that might have been written
by an Angel in Heaven out of sheer charity, or by a diplomat for
mere bunkum, but which, to my mind, show an utter ignorance of
the prevailing type of American character.
" It may also be observed that rabid bigotry is not a plant that
flourishes on American soil." . , . "Americans are fundamentally
a religious people." ..." They have a deep sense of justice and
fair play." ..." They are, withal, a law-abiding people " — and
finally — " While the Catholic religion accommodates itself to every
form of government it has a special adaptability to our own political
system and to the genius of the American people," etc., etc.
Now all this may be good Pharasaic yolicy. It may be a sop to
CARDINAL GIBBONS' NEW BOOK. 139
Cerberus. It may be spotless charity, but I call it senseless taffy,
showing on the part of the writer a lamentable ignorance alike of the
prevailing character and history of the American people.
It will not do, my dear Cardinal, to take a few exceptional Ameri-
can characters who — ^through various processes of supernatural grace,
have become loyal converts to Catholic faith, or a few exceptional
characters of any sect.
We must take Americans and American history en masse — from
the time of the discovery of this country until now — ^in making up
our estimate of what Americanism really means in world-'history,
before we can safely pronounce upon the theme in general terms,
such as you have used.
What are the facts ? Something as follows. Groing back to our
earliest times — in the South — Spanish Americans — and Catholics
at that — were such bigots, and so full of injustice and unfairness that
they never tried to comprehend the simple and natural virtues
of the American Indians, but outraged, enslaved and murdered them
as if they — these Cathohc Christians — ^had never heard or known of
the true principles of Christianity.
In the North the English Americans not only treated the Indians
with more brutal tyranny and slaughter than the Spanish treated
them in the South, but the American "Puritans," in particular,
manifested their bigotry, unfairness and injustice with equal severity
toward Quakers, Episcopalians and especially toward English, French
Canadian and other Catholics. In truth the rottenest core of all
human bigotry, unfairness and injustice centred in New England
America from its incipiency, and has been the vilest upas tree of
all human history during the last two hundred years, and to-day
it is harder and more narrow-headed than ever.
Moreover, as the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians grew to power in
the now called Middle American States they violated every principle
of fairness and justice not only toward the more peaceful and more
just and more refined English Quaker elements that preceded them
in these States, but showed no regard either for colonial, British
or other principles of loyalty or justice, and the combination between
these American, Scotch and Irish Calvinists and the Yankee infidels
led by Sam Adams, Ben Franklin and Co., — which in utter lawless-
ness overthrew the American Colonial governments and set up for
themselves, will eventually appear in the annals of the future as the
most dastardly contradiction of all the principles of justice and fair-
140 THE GLOBE,
ness that civilization, so-called, has ever witnessed. In truth there
is no signal act of justice in our whole national history.
In founding this government, or pretending to found it on the
principles of human equality and justice and in forming our Consti-
tution nominally on these principles — wliile actually holding and
binding in abject slavery nearly one-sixth of our then population,
the American recreants from a sound colonial and British policy per-
petrated the most glaring and absurd injustice known in the annals
of modern nations. Why Americanism is the synonym for injustice
and tyranny.
It is needless to say that this injustice and unfairness went on till
American abolitionists, inspired by English and Quaker Christian
justice, upheaved the continent and buried at least one million of
the best of our American race in its ruins.
Everybody knows that our American treatment of the American
Indian has been as bigoted, unfair, unjust, inhuman and blasphemous
as it was possible for the conduct of one race toward another to be.
The Chinese represent a civilization which for education, equity and
justice not only antedates the European and American by many cen-
turies, but in many respects is superior to our American civilization
up to this hour, and yet our national legislative and popular action
toward the Chinese, prompted and dictated by ignorant, and bigoted
Irish hoodlumism has been one of insufferable and inexcusable
injustice and unfairness — even beneath contempt, and that during
the last quarter of a century.
About forty millions of our so-called Americans of all European
races — are so-called Protestants, of a hundred bigoted and contempt-
ible creeds — and about fifteen millions of all European races are
Catholics. A large majority of these Catholics 'are so conscientious
regarding the matter of the importance of religious instruction for
their children, that they simply cannot send those children to the
modem Moloch known as the American Public School, and yet
though those fifteen millions pay their full share of the school tax
this beautiful sense of justice and fair play which the good Cardinal
lauds 60 highly is so blasted, seared, rotten and damnable that no
portion of the school tax is devoted by the Protestant American ma-
jority toward the schools which Catholics feel bound to provide for
their children. Still — ^according to His Eminence of Baltimore,
Americans are not bigoted, but are just and have a fine sense of fair-
ness and fair play.
CARDINAL GIBBONS' NEW BOOK, 141
A pox upon such senseless palaver! I honor and love the Cardinal
for his goodness, but I could almost despise him for his lack of clear
and comprehensive intelligence on this and on other themes. The
truth is that he and some other American prelates had better stick
to their trade as teachers and examples of piety and let great and
commanding national questions alone. For they simply do not un-
derstand them. Again if there is 'anything especially characteristic
of the Roman Catholic Church it is obedience to constituted author-
ity, and if there is anything especially characteristic of Americanism
from ocean to ocean it is to be a law unto itself and not to care a rush
for constituted authority. Americanism it is true makes enough
laws in a quarter of a century to gag the universe for all time — ^but
nobody minds those laws, and the eternal mischief of it is that they
are not worth minding, but that ninety per cent, of them are beneath
all civilized contempt. Still the Cardinal says we are a law-abiding
people and without bigotry. "Why ignorant bigotry is the air and
life of average Americanism. New England Yankeeism is full of it.
Our Middle States — Episcopacy — led by such organs as the Church-
man of New York and the Church Standard of Philadelphia is full
of it.
The South especially in Baptist and Methodist persuasions, is full
of it to utter blindness. The West — especially in its legislative en-
actments is more than full of it, and if a real Jeremiah or a real
Diogenes were among us I fancy that the one would tear his hair and
the other dash his lantern to pieces in sheer despair of finding an
unbigoted, just and upright American citizen.
Those at all familiar with the subject know that the hunkerite,
liberal, scientific and educational bigotry of modern Americanism is
at once more binding and blinding than the worst forms or phases
of bigotry ever attributed to papists.
The infamous bigotry of the Puritanism of two hundred years ago
now shows itself east and west in Maine laws — school laws — text-
book laws — Raines bills — etc. etc. etc.
There are more beastly drunkards in the State of Maine than in
any portion of this continent of an equal number of inhabitants — yet
that wretched fool-fossil Neal Dow expresses himself satisfied with
the working of his bigoted law.
All the intelligent people of the State of Maine know the facts
to be as I have stated them, and most of these people drink liquor
as freely as their intelligent fellow-beings in other parts of the world.
142 THE OLOBE.
Maine legislators know these facts and they themselves drink as a
rule; Maine authorities know these facts and do not hesitate to tax
unlicensed saloon-keepers to aid in all their national and other holi-
days, and yet such is the blinded assinine bigotry of the people of
Maine that no man can be elected to the Maine legislature who is not
sworn, falsely, of course, to uphold the Maine law. And Maine is no
more bigoted than New York, Pennsylvania or Ohio.
In South Dakota a neighbor is liable to be fined and imprisoned
for offering another neighbor a glass of wine — ^yet saloons are every-
where open there as in Maine — and as all the world knows — the
Dakotas are the Meccas of lascivious and adulterous husbands and
wives who resort thither to secure lawful American divorces by the
thousand.
Why ignorance and bigotry, unfairness and injustice are the very
essences of American civilization, as far as it is or can be differen-
tiated from the civilization of the nations of the Old World, and
every foreigner that has come here these last two hundred years has
become tainted therewith. It is not true moreover that the rattlecat
and universal falsehood of our seasons of election are bloodless and
mere vapor of earnest partyism.
It was rattlecat Americanism that slew Abraham Lincoln. It was
election rattlecatism that murdered Glarfield. Guiteau was only the
weak-headed honest instrument of dishonest newspaper American in-
justice and infamy.
I am sorry to feel obliged to say. these things — thousands of Amer-
icans are excellent people and many hundreds of them are personally
dear to me — ^but the entire nation is cursed with bigotry, unfairness,
injustice, insubordination, and nothing but conversion by the grace
of God in Christ Jesus and obedience to this can save the American
people — Protestant and Catholic from approaching hell-fire. The
Cardinal's salve and soft soap will not do it. But if he knows no
better, he must use the best elements he has at hand. I also, must
do the same.
Of the chapters immediately succeeding the Preface one can speak
only in praise for reasons already indicated. In truth the entire book
— ^as far as it relates to the subject of its title breathes the same spirit
of fatherly wisdom and charity based upon many of the most beauti-
ful passages of Scripture; but when we get along to Chapter XII.,
for instance, and find some of the sublimest and most supernatural
utterances of our Saviour, touching His voluntary obedience to the
CARDINAL GIBBONS' NEW BOOK, 143
Father's will even unto death, rather than to His own human will,
followed hy references to Samuel J. Randall's conduct on one occa-
sion when he was speaker of the House of Representatives, as if illus-
trating the same order of " ohedience to Teachers," it is very much
like a drop into bathos or a mud-gutter, or a plunge from the sublime
to the ridiculous, and far deeper.
This, however, is only one of many instances in the book wherein
natural and prudent morality, based on a cert'ain kind of Yankee
shrewdness, is found side by side with some of the holiest examples
and teachings of holy writ, as if the two were indicative of the same
sort of impulse and injunction. Perhaps, the Cardinal did this to
make his book popular with the average smart American public.
For my own part I could wish that a book, so careful and beautiful
in its earlier Scriptural and almost inspirational exaltation had been
more carefully edited so that these confusions between the natural
and supernatural in our lives had been avoided by deeper and more
careful discrimination. In truth the Cardinars circle of reading,
hence of authors quoted, outside the Scriptures and the Fathers,
seems to have been very limited and very unfavorable as aids to the
subject handled in this volume. If it had ever been his good for-
tune to read carefully Matthew Arnold's " Literature and Dogma " —
wherein the clear distinction is made between highest natural moral-
ity and true religion, I think he would have made much less of Ran-
dall and Blaine, and Dan Webster in this book than he has made,
and in the end have made a much more valuable contribution to the
church literature of the future.
In the same line it is a sort of duty to call attention to the fact that
while frequent reference is made to the mere political rhetoricians
of American literature and statesmanship, I do not recall a single
reference to the writings and speeches of Emerson, Phillips, Sumner
and others of similar though of less power and genius, and yet all
the world knows that these latter were the greatest men of character,
genius, and oratory that America has ever produced. In truth, out-
side of its direct Scriptural and ecclesiastical quotation, the book
reads like a hap-hazard muck-heap of newspaper padding.
All this indicates to me that while Cardinal Gibbons is a man of
undoubted Scriptural learning, with ability to apply this learning
to the immediate use of the true Ambassador of Christ, he certainly
is not a man of deep and comprehensive thought ; in fact is incapa-
ble of writing on great international world problems or characters.
144 THE GLOBE.
incapable of making clear and sharp discriminations as to the exact
moral or mental comparative values of ancient or modem literary
and political characters and for these very reasons, as I said, had
better stick to his trade as a Cardinal, Archbishop and Scriptural
teacher of souls in the peculiar and exclusive line of his own vocation.
In truth the Eoman Catholic Church in America in this genera-
tion is literally cursed by the amateur literary and political utter-
ances of some of its prelatical and priestly and lay writers — who, be-
cause they have exalted ecclesiastical positions, editorships, and
titles are constantly publishing books, lectures, editorials etc., that
ought to be put to soak in silence for at least one hundred years.
In view of these strictures it seems but just to speak of the Car-
dinal's handsome and liberal candor in admitting that the great up-
heaval known as the Protestant Reformation — while inexcusable in
itself and especially in its renegade priests — was excusable, and in
some sense necessary in view of the prevailing corruption of the
Church during the centuries immediately preceding those dastards
of apostate piety known to history as Martin Luther, John Knox
and John Calvin.
This portion of the Cardinal's book no less than the far more
beautiful Scriptural portions of it will be especially gratifying to
American Protestants.
On the whole I should say that to have made the book what it
ought to have been the Cardinal absolutely needed an assistant of
far wider literary reading than he himself can be credited with, and
of far deeper and sharper editorial discrimination as to what should
and what should not have appeared in a book of this kind. But to
the utterly blind a question of the delicate discrimination of the de-
grees and shades of light is of small importance.
William Henry Thorne.
REST THOU, DEAR HEART.
Rest thou, dear heart, thy long day's work is done,
Damp shadows creep the hills — the Master nears the gate.
Soft fragrance of immortal blooms float up the vale,
Unwaning joys — the breath of His Elate.
CATHOLIOISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 145
Wilt open wide the gate, dear heart, He stands,
His locks are languid with the sleeping dews,
Hang forth your lamps. Faith, Hope, unwearying Love.
Ah I gentle blending of their peaceful hues.
1 hear His voice, dear heart, though low He calls,
A harmony unknown drifts wide my spirit o'er,
As sacred cadence of seraphic dream, or flow
Of singing waters, sweet, from the Eternal shore.
The gate then open wide, dear heart, nor let Him wait,
Like dreaded forms press chilling glooms around — we are apart.
Oh quick I let me but look into His shining Face
And lay my fears and burdens on His loving Heart.
He comes — ^He comes, dear heart, — ^the night is past I
A glory blinds mine eyes — ^I cannot see.
" Dear Master, Thou did'st give us work to do —
But oh ! how poorly was it done by me ! "
I hear again that Voice from far off Eealm,
I know my tears have all been soothed away.
His tender arms outstretch to all my care —
Oh, tell me — ^is this Light of Endless Bay ?
New York. E. C. Melyin.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH.
THIED PAPER.
In the preceding articles on this subject, I have called attention
to the gradually increasing severity of the penal laws enacted against
the Ancient Faith, by the execution of which Catholics were vexed
with fines, forfeiture of property, civil disabilities, imprisonment,
exile, and various other penalties. I have mentioned that during
the first years of Elizabeth's reign, no one was actually put to death
for religion.
The Queen and her adviser trusted that by rendering the lives of
the Catholics unendurable, combined with the gradual decease,
hastened by want and poverty, of the deprived clergy, the old religion
VOL. VIL— 10.
146 THE GLOBE,
would quickly disappear. " Time was on their side. They had only
to be patient: and in a few years without any actual bloodshed " *
their work would be accomplished. How this cruel and cold-blooded
scheme of deviUsh ingenuity was frustrated, under Divine Provi-
dence, mainly by the labors of one man, William Allen of blessed
memory, I have already indicated; and as we have now reached that
period of Elizabethan History nicknamed by Froude ** The Jesuit
Invasion,*' it will be necessary to consider briefly, the methods em-
ployed by those blessed Martyrs of our Holy Faith who succeeded
only at the sacrifice of their lives in averting a complete national
apostasy and whose work was crowned by the preservation through
centuries of "a bloody and crushing persecution" of a scattered
remnant, through which the Faith in its integrity has been preserved
" even unto the present day " in which it has been so unexpectedly
and powerfully reinforced during the last half century of CathoUc
Revival and seems destined in the future to tower aloft amidst the
disintegration of ephemeral beliefs as the only authoritative teacher
of the Religion of Christ to the English-speaking race throughout
the world.
At Oxford for some time after Elizabeth's accession the new re-
ligion was not strongly enforced, and although Allen resigned his
office as Principal of St. Mary's Hall,t he seems to have resided there
until 1561, in which year he proceeded to the University of Louvain.
In a previous article we have seen that he was again in England from
1562 to 1565, during which time he resided first in his native county
of Lancashire, then near Oxford and subsequently in the County
of Norfolk, under the protection of the Duke of Norfolk, who though
he had nominally conformed sheltered several learned Catholics.
Allen was therefore acquainted with the exact state of religion in
different parts of England and his statements are not only interest-
ing but entirely trustworthy.
The successive changes in religion in the last three reigns, and the
commotions that had attended them had, as might have been ex-
pected, produced a wide-spread tendency to compliance and relig-
ious indifference.
The vast majority were still Catholic at heart, but were not pre-
pared to risk their lives and properties by open opposition to the
* Father Kqox. Becords of the English Catholics.
t His successor John Rawe was appointed about 1560. Le Neve, Fast.
Eccl. Angl. m. 585.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 147
authorities. It is true that, as Father Knox lucidly observes " there
were not wanting men who boldly avowed and acted upon their
convictions; some zealous for the Catholic Faith, others active in
propagating the new religion. Still, their comparative fewness ren-
dered them more valuable to the Government of the day as auxil-
iaries, than formidable as opponents." As Elizabeth sat more firmly
on her throne and her administration acquired strength and organ-
ization, many who at first had kept strictly aloof from her religious
innovations were forced from fear and want to comply outwardly,
or at least assume an appearance of benevolent neutrality; in this
manner securing themselves from the perpetual harassing to which
their more conscientious neighbors were subject. This nominal
conformity which a certain class of Anglican writers have adduced
as evidence of their continuity theory, was defended by some on the
ground that it was enough to hold the Faith interiorly while obey-
ing the Sovereign in externals.
It appears that there were even many Priests who, to quote the
emphatic condemnation of Allen, " said mass secretly and celebrated
tiie heretical offices and supper in public. 0 horrible impiety."
And it speaks volumes for his earnestness and those associated with
him that notwithstanding the terrible rigor of the laws, they suc-
ceeded in persuading at any rate a considerable number to prefer,
manfully, to submit to the more or less complete destruction of their
temporal interests, than to break the eternal laws of God by dis-
honest dissembling and confusion of Truth and Error. Of this,
writing September 16, 1578, Allen remarks, " and whereas in the
judgment of many worldly-wise men this strict enforcement of
ecclesiastical discipline seemed likely to lessen greatly the number
of Catholics, the Lord God has shown by the experience of a few
years the contrary to be true. For we have now more confessors and
genuine Catholics than with all our indulgence and connivance we
then had concealed Christians; a class of men moreover whose in-
ward faith would have furthered neither their own salvation nor
that of others, while their outward example would have led many
to ruin, and thus without giving a thought to the sin of schism,
or to the restoration of the true religion, but flattering themselves
with their good will, and pleading in excuse for their unlawful acts
the Sovereign's laws, they would have plunged themselves and
theirs, unrepentant, into the miserable abyss of destruction." *
*MS. English College. Kome. Quoted by Father Knox.
148 THE GLOBE.
It would be ungrateful to make no mention of some of Allen's
associates and fellow exiles for the faith, as Eichard Bristow, Fellow
of Exeter College, Oxford, " who after Allen contributed perhaps
more than anyone else to the success " of the Missionary College
at Douay, John Marshall, Fellow of New College, Oxford, previously
second master at Wincliester under Dr. Thomas Hyde, who also
resigned his preferment and died in exile for the faith.
Edward Risden of Exeter College, Oxford, John Wright of York,
a Priest and very learned man, Richard Storey of Gloucester, a
Priest. Thomas Darell, a student of New College, Oxford, a great
benefactor to the seminary. The Rev. Morgan Phillips, a former
tutor of Allen's at Oxford who resided at the college from its com-
mencement and left it all his property. Dr. Owen Lewis, Fellow of
New College, Oxford, and regius professor of cauon law. Thomas
Stapleton, fellow of New College, Oxford, and Canon of Chichester.
Thomas Dorman, Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford. Edmund
Campion, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, and many others.
Of the course of studies of the Douay students, it is impossible
not to be struck with the constant reading, explanation, and preach-
ing of the Scriptures ; even at meals " before they leave their places,
they hear a running explanation of one chapter of the Old and an-
other of the New Testament." *
They were also taught Greek and Hebrew " sufficient to read and
understand the Scriptures of both Testaments in the original, and
to save them from being entangled in the sophisms which heretics
extract from the properties and meanings of words." \
They attended two lectures daily on Scholastic Theology and were
instructed in every detail of Pastoral duty. Amongst the books rec-
ommended for their private reading to acquire " skilfulness in deal-
ing with heretics," occur, curiously, S. Augustin's letters to the
Donatists, the perusal of which in recent times was the commence-
ment of the conversion to the Church of perhaps the greatest intel-
lect England has produced since Shakespeare.!
Surrounded by a profoundly Catholic people performing their
religious duties with devotion and diligence " we picture to them "
wrote Allen " the mournful contrast visible at home, the utter deso-
lation of all things sacred, which there exists, our country once so
famed for its religion and holy before God now void of all religion,
♦ Allen quoted by Knox. f Ibid. J Cardinal Newman.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 149
our friends and kinsfalk, all our dear ones and countless souls be-
sides perishing in schism and godlessness, every jail and dungeon
filled to overflowing not with thieves and villains but with Christ's
priests and servants, nay, with our parents and kinsmen."
That there was not a word of exaggeration in this description is
unfortunately but too clearly proved, by the published records of
the period. It can hardly be credited that the last Abbot of West-
minster the celebrated Dr. Feckenham a man beloved by all whom
even Mr. Froude describes as " a man full of gentleness and tender
charity," a man who had both denounced the Catholic reprisals
under Mary and interceded for Elizabeth in her trouble, was treated
with exceptional severity. In a letter from the council to the Bishop
of Ely, October 23, 1579, Cox is directed " to cause him to be kept
close prisonner in some fit room not suffering him to have any
man of his own choice to attend upon him, and that such person
as his Lordship shall appoint of his own servants to resort unto
him, to deliver him his necessary food {which their Lordships wish to
he no larger than may serve for his convenient sustenance), be known
to be of honest behaviour whom he may not corrupt to receive or
convey letters, but that his Lordship be made acquainted with his
doings from time to time, and in this order to continue the said
Feckenham until he shall receive other directions from their Lord-
ships." And this because after twenty years' imprisonment,
harassed with conferences thrust on him by those whose ministra-
tions he could only have regarded with contempt and just indig-
nation, he had presumed to express his disapproval " of her Maj-
esty's godly proceedings in matters of Religion within this
Realme." *
The rigor with which the laws were enforced may be surmised
by the fact that in 1579, Sir John Arundell of Lanherne in Corn-
wall was brought before the Council to answer for such things as
were found in his house, which he declared consisted only of certain
pictures of Christ and the Virgin Mary, that he had left there at the
time of his departure, two years previously.
It is utterly destructive to some of the illusions of modem Angli-
canism to find in the same year (1579) a letter from the Council
" touching certain copes, vestments, tunicles," etc., found in Lich-
field Cathedral, ordering the said Popish stuff to be sought out de-
* " Acts of the Privy Council," October 23, 1579.
150 TUE GLOBE.
faced and sold. It appears that in some instances those who refused
to attend the Established Worship were at first committed to the
custody of private persons, but if after conference with the Protes-
tant ministers they remained unconvinced they were sent " to close
prison in the common gaols." *
Commissions were granted to Bishops and others for the trial of
persons " detected of hearing of masses and using other supersti-
tions contrary to the present state of Religion." \
The influence of the Missionary Priests passing over from the
Continent was now beginning to be felt.
We have seen that the first small batch of four had landed in
England in 1574. Seven passed over in 1575. Eighteen in 1576
including the proto Martyr of the Seminary Priests, Blessed Cuth-
bert Mayne, fifteen in 1577, twenty in 1578, twenty in 1579, twenty-
nine in 1580 and thus in varying numbers year by year a stream of
devoted martyrs and confessors, carried on the work to the un-
speakable joy of their afilicted co-religionists. Even as early as the
end of 1575, Father Henry Shaw, one of those who had passed over
the previous year, reported that the number of Catholics \vithdrawn
from heresy was increased tenfold. In the year following Father
John Payne, on his arrival in England reports that " very many per-
sons in daily increasing numbers are everywhere reconciled to the
Church." He adds, that the heretics are as much troubled at the
name of the Anglo-Douay Priests, which is now famous throughout
England, as all the Catholics are consoled thereby. Allen writing
to the College from Paris, 1577, gives the intelligence, received from
persons come over from England, that the numbers of those daily
restored to the Church almost surpassed belief, he mentions that
one of the younger Priests lately sent on the mission had reconciled
no fewer than eighty persons in one day. When one reflects that
before Elizabeth's reign had closed over four hundred Priests had
been sent into England from Allen's College, it is obvious that tlie
preservation of the Catholic faith is, in the main due, to the heroic
efforts and self denying zeal of the secular clergy. Nevertheless
it would be unjust to pass over the labors of others and undoubtedly
♦ See " Acts of the Privy Council," 1578-9. Letter to the Bishop of
Norwich, February 15, 1578.
f Ibid. Letter from the Council to the Lord Keeper directing^ him to
grant commision of Oier and Determiner to the Bishop of Bangor, the
Bishop of S. Asaph and others.
i-
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 151
in the first instance the good seed was sown by the heroic abnega-
tion of the Catholic Hierarchy, who with the exception of one mis-
erable time server, chose rather imprisonment and exile than posi-
tion and worldly power purchased by a disgraceful apostasy.
Nor must we forget those of the Marian Clergy who at much risk
and inconvenience to themselves remained concealed throughout
the country, and by their private administration of the Sacraments
and influence confirmed the faith of their brethren and both hin-
dered and brought back many whom human infirmity had led to the
paths of error. Even as late as 1596, it was estimated that about
forty or fifty of these aged servants of God remained at their apos-
tolic labors, " if so many remained after thirty eight years of blood-
thirsty persecution, their number must have been very large during
the first years of schism." *
The disguises assumed by the Priests engaged in the English Mis-
sion were numerous, some as officers returning from the Low Coun-
tries, some as merchants, some as serving men. Necessity is the
mother of invention and many of these disguises were doubtless
both excellent and adapted to facile variation in any emergency.
In the autobiography of Father William "Weston \ we find that
on one occasion he appears to have entered a room as a venerable old
man and left it as a young one. Of the life of the Missionary Priests
writes Allen; in that deeply sympathetic spirit which perhaps was
the secret of much of his influence over others: "I could reckon
unto you the miseries they suffer in night joumies in the worst
weather that can be picked, peril of thieves, of waters, of watches,
of false brethren; their close abode in chambers as in prison or
dungeon without fire and candle lest they give token to the enemy
where they be; their often and sudden rising from their beds at
midnight to avoid the diligent searches of heretics; all of which
and divers other discontentments, disgraces and reproaches they
willingly suffer, which is great penance for their feathers,* and all
to win the souls of their deaxest countrymen, which pains few men
pity as they should do and not many reward them as they ought
to do." Of the difficult and delicate nature of their work, Allen
proceeds, " Even among the Catholics of our country, needfully liv-
* Father Knox.
f See " Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers," second series.
X Their secular disguises to which some, very unreasonably, took ex-
ception.
152 THE OLOBE.
ing in awe of man's laws, there is such fear, such variety of humors,
such perfect the more, such perfect the less, so diversely to be dealt
withal, some to he handled softly, some hardly, and all so to be
trained towards heaven that they lose nothing for it here in the
world, that those which serve their souls in this pitiful case and state
of things to every of their contentations and to the liking of all that
be lookers on had need to be cunning carvers." During EUzabeth's
reign 116 secular Priests, 7 Jesuits, 1 Benedictine and 1 Franciscan
shed their blood for the faith. Many others died in prison or if
released retired to the Continent with health shattered beyond
repair in loathsome dungeons combined with every variety and de-
gree of mental and physical torture. In face of the perfect spy
system of Cecil, in daily receipt of reports and counter reports of
officials, detectives, pursuivants, apostates, false brethren, the won-
der is not that so many perished, but that every Catholic Priest was
not swept from the face of England, but a large majority of the
nation still leaut to the ancient faith, and as Mr. Froude remarks
" they had friends everywhere from the Palace of Westminster to
the village ale house," who sheltered them at risk to themselves
tenderly cared for them iu sickness and privately buried in their
own houses those who were fortunate enough to die in their beds.*
- In June, 1580, the secular clergy in England were reiaforced by
two Jesuit Priests the renowned Fathers Parsons and Campion; and
nothing was more natural than that Allen should have applied for
assistance to the Company " then in all the fervor and glory of its
beginnings." In a letter written about a year before his death to
♦ The terrible tortures inflicted on the stanch Catholics during Eliza-
beth's reign, the Rack, the Scavenger's Daughter, the Little Ease, the
Dark Pit, the ears cut off and burnt through, the thumb screws, the
cruel whippings, the wholesale executions and judicial murder of nearly
the entire male population of districts after the Catholic rebellion of
1569, are omitted from Protestant text-books of History. Some of the
Priests seemed to have almost borne charmed lives. For instance
Father John Curry, a native of Bodenin, Cornwall, sent over in 1577,
after nearly twenty years of missionary work during which time he
never seems to have fallen into the hands of the authorities, died peace-
ably in London, in the house of the future Martyr Mrs. Lyne where he
was secretly buried. Another still more extraordinary example was
Father Richard Holtby, who for 60 years labored chiefly in the North
without ever being captured, though he had several hair-breadth es-
capes. He died May, 1640, aged 87.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 153
Cardinal Pole S. Ignatius had expressed " the ardent desire which
the divine and supreme charity had imparted to him of serving the
souls in that realm." Moreover his order had heen augmented by
many recruits from the Douay College and in its whole history
nothing is more touching than the beautiful, ungrudging spirit in
which Allen and his associates gave up some of the most promising
of those they had trained for the English Mission, to the Society
of Jesus, thanking God devoutly for having given them a higher
vocation to a religious order.
The Jesuits were received by the English Catholics with great
joy. Priests and people alike welcoming them both as distinguished
fellow countrymen and members of the great society, then as now
ever before the ennemy, the vanguard of Catholic Truth from China
to Brazil, from Canadian snows to the burning sands of equatorial
Africa.
To the English Grovemment Campion was from the first a marked
man. A bright lad of fourteen, one of the most promising pupils
of the Blue Coat School, the future martyr had greeted Mary Tudor
on her entry into London in 1553. Thirteen years later a distin-
guished member of S. John's College, Oxford, he had welcomed
Elizabeth and Leicester to the University and had been compli-
mented by both Queens for his orations.
The most popular man at his university, although still probably
a Catholic at heart, he was induced to accept Deacon's orders at the
hands of the solitary High Church representative amongst Eliza-
beth's first Episcopal Bench, Eichard Cheney, Bishop of Glouces-
ter.* His conscience troubling him, he seems to have passed into
Ireland, where the Lord Deputy and others of high rank scarcely
concealed their Catholic leanings. Even here his views were so pro-
nounced, that fearing arrest he fled to Douay and shortly afterwards
joined the Society of Jesus in Bohemia. His brief but eventful
career in England is best described in his own words, portraying
vividly as they do the real feeling of the great majority of the Eng-
lish nation.
"I came to London": wrote Campion, in ITovember, 1580, to
the General of his order ; " and my good angel guided me unwit-
• It has been said that Cheney died a Catholic. A letter to him from
Campion seems to imply that although he had conformed to the State
Church, his good faith was doubtful.
154 THE GLOBE.
tingly to the same house that had harboured Father Robert Par-
sons before, whither young gentlemen come to me on every hand.
They embrace me, re-apparel me, furnish me, weapon me and con-
vey me out of the city. I ride about some piece of the country every
day. The harvest is wonderfully great. On horseback I meditate
my sermon, when I come to the house I polish it. Then I talk with
such as come to speak with me or hear their confessions. In the
morning after Mass I preach, they hear with exceeding greediness
and very often receive the Sacrament, for the ministration whereof
we are well assisted by Priests whome we find in every place. . . .
I cannot long escape the hands of the heretics, the ennemies have
so many eyes, so many tongues, so many scouts and crafts. I am
in apparel to myself very ridiculous, I often change it and my name
also. I read letters sometimes myself that in the first front tell
news that Cam,pion is taken, which noised in every place where I
come, so fills mine ears with the sound thereof, that f eax itself hath
taken away fear. My soul is in mine own hands ever, let such as
you send make count of this always. The solaces that are inter-
meddled with the miseries are so great that they not only counter-
vail the fear of what temporal government so ever but by infinite
sweetness make all worldly pains seem nothing, a conscience pure,
a courage invincible, zeal incredible, a work so worthy, the number
innumerable of high degrees, of mean calling, of the inferior sort,
of every age and sex. Among the Protestants themselves that are
of a milder nature, it is turned into a proverb, that he must be a
Catholic that payeth faithfully that he oweth. In so much that
if any Catholic do injury, everybody expostulates with him as for
an act unworthy men of that calling. To be short, heresy heareth
ill of all men, neither is there any condition of people commonly
counted more vile and impure than their ministers, and we \i?^orthily
have indignation that fellows so unlearned, so evil, so derided, so
base, should in so desperate a quarrel overrule such a number of
noble wits as our realm hath."
" There was too much justice in Campion's description of the
Protestant clergy,," says Froude. " The Bishops seemed determined
to deserve the name which Elizabeth was so fond of bestowing on
them. The House of Commons had many times, in vain, remon-
strated against their commutations of penance, their dispensations
for pluralities, their iniquitous courts and the class of persons whom
they ordained to the ministry. The Bishop of Lichfield made sev-
enty ministers in one day for money, some tailors, some shoemakers
and other craftsmen." Father Campion continues, "threatening
edicts come forth against us daily, notwithstanding by good heed
and the Prayers of good men we have passed safely through the
most part of the Island. I find many neglecting their own security
to have care of my safety . . . the persecution rages most cruelly.
At the house where I am is no other talk but of death, flight, prison
or spoil of their friends, nevertheless they proceed with courage,
OATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 155
many even at this present are being restored to the Church, new
soldiers giving up their names, while the old offer up their blood,
by which Holy Hosts and oblations God will be pleased, and we
shall no question, by Him overcome. There will never want in
England men that shall have care of their own salvation, nor such
as shall advance other men's, neither shall this church ever fail,
so long as Priests and Pastors shall be found for these sheep, rage
man or Devil never so much."
The Catholics, for the first time, now refused generally to attend
the Anglican services and one of Walsingham's spies in England
warned 'him " that the times were perilous, the people wilful and
desirous of change with greater danger on hand than was provided
for."
At the beginning of the next year, 1581, a bill was passed forbid-
ding the saying of Mass in even private houses; it was enacted that
whoever should say or sing a mass should be fined 500 marks and
innprisoned for a year, and that those who refused to attend the
service of the Established Church should pay i20 a month for their
exemption. It was a serious step, the last clause especially was
equivalent to the confiscation of the estates of the Catholics. In
an old MSS. Domestic State Papers, 1581,* the Catholic position is
accurately stated. " No Catholic Christian, it was said, could go
to church without danger of damnable schism. The Anglicans
might claim the title of Catholic, but their ministers were some
Protestants, some Puritans, some holding other plain heresies. He
that was a Protestant to-day would be a Puritan to-morrow or some
other sectary. . . . Christians were bound fully and wholly and
not by pieces and patches."
The letters of Mendoza to Phillip throw an interesting light on
the straits to which those who professed the ancient Faith were now
reduced. "The leading Catholics of this country," he wrote on
April 6, 1581, "have signified to me that, besides the troubles and
miseries which they have undergone in the last two years, a perse-
cution now awaits them of which the first was but a shadow. They
must not depart from the realm; and unless they will forget God,
and profess the errors which are here established, they will not only
lose lands, liberi^y and perhaps life, but through these laws now
passed through Parliament, they may leave tainted names to their
children."
* Quoted by Froude.
156 THE GLOBE.
The strong Catholic spirit that still lingered at Oxford may be
inferred from Mr. Froude's remark " that Campion's ten reasons for
being a Catholic threw the university into an ecstasy of enthu-
siasm." But the Missionary Priests had to deal with stem and de-
termined men ; on July 31st, of the following year, 1581, Everard
Ilarte a seminary Priest was hanged and quartered under the late
act at I'yburn. " He died," says Mendoza, " with invincible resolu-
tion to the wonder of the heretics and the great edification of the
Catholics. Two nights after there was not a particle of earth which
his blood had stained that had not been carried off as a relic, and in-
finite sums were given for his shirt and other clothes." *
Apprehended at Lydford in July,t and taken prisoner to London
tied on a horse, remaining obdurate under the severest racking,
Campion was brought to trial on the 14th of N'ovember with four-
teen others, on a charge, which as a recent Protestant authority
admits, was absolutely unfounded,! for while it might be difficult
to establish the same of some others; it is positively certain that
Campion never even in the slightest degree meddled in political
matters. When called on to plead he was unable to raise his arm,
the joint being broken from the torture, and two of his companions
raised it for him, first kissing the broken joints. Ten days later
Campion with Sherwin and Bryant were brought out of the Tower
to die, so " they had suffered their last miseries there, and little
ease and the scavenger's daughter and the thumbscrews and the
rack and the black cells and the foul water, were parted with for-
ever. Peace at any rate and after one more pang a painless rest
now lay before them. The torture chamber brought one blessing
with it. Death had ceased to be terrible. . . . Campion as the
eldest was allowed the privilege of dying first. ... * We are come
here to die but we are no traitors ' he said. * I am a Catholic man
and a Priest, in that faith I have lived and in that faith I mean to
die. If you consider my religion treason then I am guilty. Other
treason I never committed any as God is my judge.' At his quar-
tering a drop of blood sipurted on the clothes of a youth named
Henry Walpole to whom it came as a divine command. Walpole,
converted on the spot, became a Jesuit and soon after met the same
fate at the same place. Sherwin's turn came next and then young
♦ Quoted by Froude. f 1581.
X See notice of Campion in last edition of Chambers' Encyclopedia.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH, 157
Bryant's and their innocent faces called out general emotion." *
In a weak or pliable race Catholicism might have perished; at any
rate for that generation; in these terrible holocausts of blood, but
Englishmen axe ever most themselves in moments of greatest dan-
ger.
" Through the whole Catholic population there rose one long
cry of exulting admiration. An arm of Campion's was stolen as a
relic from the place where it had been hung. Parsons secured the
halter and died with it about his neck thirty years after at Vallado-
lid. The Pope had the passion of the English martyrs painted on
the walls of the English College at Eome to stir the emulations of the
rising students." \
Of the clergy of the New Establishment during this period, it may
be said, that they seemed to devote more time in squabbling over
the plundered Catholic temporalities, than in converting the nation
to Protestantism.
The "Warden and Fellows of New College in Winchester were in-
formed by the Privy Council ; that if they neglected the rule, by
which each of them was bound to preach at least twice a year in the
chapel of their own house, "their Lordships will have a regard to
reform them." J
Enquiry was ordered as to the " waste committed in the woods
belonging to the see of Winchester," with a view of making the
executors and estate of the late Bishop responsible. §
The widow of the Dean of Durham charged the Bishop and Chap-
ter of unjust dealing with regard to the property left by her late
husband. ||
Ecclesiastical scandals were rampant in the Diocese of Peterbor-
ough.Tf
A Prebendajy of Worcester was accused of having obtained his
preferment by forging the signature of the Bishop of Winchester.
In his defence he protested that the signature was genuine and had
been obtained from the Bishop for a bribe of five pounds.**
One of the Prebendaries of Canterbury was charged with " cer-
tain horrible offences." \ \
The dealings of some of the Protestant Hierarchy with their
Church lands excited the displeasure of the council who informed
* Fronde. f Ibid. % " Acts of the Privy Council," Vol. XI.
§ Ibid. \ Ibid. t Ibid. *♦ Ibid. ff Ibid.
158 THE GLOBE.
the Bishop of London " that their Lordships do not a little marvel
at the fact which he confesseth to have been by him committed," *
and the same Prelate was subsequently required to reform his of-
ficers, who had abused the authority of the Court of High Com-
mission, " summoning poor men to their great charges and hinder-
ance. Nothing at their coming being laid unto their charge, but
offered to be excused for a little money."
Some of the wild and dangerous opinions that had developed
among the extreme reformers in the Edwardian period were revived.
Conventicles were set up in Gloucestershire. In the Dioceses of
Norwich and Exeter, the sect called the Family of Love were rap-
idly increasing, f
The bloodthirsty executions had only put the Catholics on their
mettle.
" What greater comfort can there be," wrote a Jesuit Priest,
" than to see God work these strange wonders in our days, to give
such rare grace of zeal, austerity of life, and constancy of martyrdom
unto young men, learned men brought up in the adversaries' own
schools, and to whom if they would have followed the pleasures of
the world, it had been lawful to have lived in favour and credit."
This cannot come of flesh and blood, when the tenderest and frailest
flesh passeth valiantly to heaven through rackings, hangings, draw-
ing, quarterings, and through a thousand miseries.
The Cross appears, Christ doth approach a comfort to us all
For whom to suffer or to die is grace celestial
Be therefore of good courage now in your sharp probation
Which shall bring you to glory great and mighty consolation
If you persevere to the end of this sharp storm indeed
You shall confound both foe and friend and Heaven have for meed.J:
" We must think," wrote another of these devoted missionaries,
" that we have deserved a great deal more punishment for our faults.
Nevertheless when God suffers us to receive punishment and wrong
for His sake, it is a manifest token that He intends to forget our
faults; and no doubt one day's sufferance here of so small grief in
this behalf doth discharge a whole year of intolerable punishment
♦ See " Acts of the Privy Council," Vol. XI. f Ibid.
X MS., endorsed. Letter from a Jesuit to a friend on Campion's con-
demnation, 1581. Quoted by Froude.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 159
in the world to come. We have lost the chief pearl of Christendom,
yet we are to hope that by the shedding of His innocent blood God
will the sooner appease His wrath against us; and all men are of
that opinion, that the offence and negligence of our forefathers were
so great and all our sins so many, as they must needs be redeemed
by the blood of martyrs." *
Every state service, public or secret was put in action against the
unfortunate Catholics. " The persecution ruins us," wrote Men-
doza to Phillip. " The Catholics are crushed by the fines which are
levied on them if absent from church. Some have relapsed to es-
cape payment. Their alms have fallen off and scarce sufiice for the
prisonners." f
That large numbers; probably the majority; of even those who
had complied or remained neutral, were still Catholic at heart, is
evident from the state papers of the period. The county magis-
trates and authorities were brought before the notice of the council,
as unwilling to enforce the new laws against the Catholics, in
Cheshire, Lancashire, Herefordshire, the Welsh marches and Wales
itself. Grand juries failed to find true bills against notorious
Papists. In Staffordshire a royal messenger was assaulted in the
exercise of liis duty.
Search was ordered in Dorset "for Priests and very dangerous
Papists lurking within that county, and all such superstitious orna-
ments and trumpery as they can by diligent search find out."
The Diocese of Winchester was similarly affected. In Oxford-
shire Sir Edward Stanley and others did not conform in matters
of religion and boldly refused to enter into any bonds. In Norfolk
the residence of the aged Sir Henry Bedingfield was a headquarters
for those badly disposed to Her Majesty's " godly proceedings."
To add injury to insult, the Preachers detailed for the instruc-
tion (?) of the Catholic prisoners, were paid out of the fines levied
on the recusants. The keepers of the London prisons were ordered
" to take a note of all such persons as should bring or send relief
to any of them," with the consequence, that, to quote the prisoners'
petition, " they were shut from all charity and relief in their wants,
sicknesses and common distresses, their friends, kindred and alli-
* Father Eyermann to his brethren, February 6, 1582. MSS. quoted by
Froude.
t Mendoza to Phillip, November 19, 1581. MSS. Suicancas, quoted by
Froude.
160 TEE GLOBE.
ances not daring to coine or send unto them for fear of displeasure,
whereby and by their straight and close keeping, wanting open air,
most of them were fallen into sickness and thereby their lives en-
dangered, as also by lack of relief and sustenance." *
Nothing can more clearly disprove the contention of some of the
modem High Anglican School, that the Elizabethan persecution
was j^olitical not religious, than the frequency with which women,
in some instances women whose husbands had actually conformed,
were committed to prison for refusing to attend the Anglican ser-
vice.
Towards the end of 1583 " there was a flight of Catholics over the
channel thick as autumn swallows. . . . Suspected persons every-
where were either sent to prison or ordered to keep their houses
under surveillance. Mendoza calculated that by the middle of the
winter eleven thousand were under arrest in one form or another.
Lord Paget escaped to France. . . The earls of Arundele and
Northumberland were sent to the Tower." \
Of the damnable perfection to which the spy system was devel-
oped in the Protestant interest, Mr. Froude remarks: " Walsingham
had apostate Priests everywhere in his service, who had saved them-
selves from the Tower rack by selling their souls. Some of them
were in the seminary at Rheims, some were prisoners in English
dungeons, sharing the confidence of their comrades by seemingly
partaking of their sufferings. Others were flitting in the usual
disguises about country houses, saying mass, hearing confessions,
and all on the watch for information; and a number of curious
notes from unknown hands, written or signed in cipher, survive
as evidence of the hundred eyes with which Elizabeth's secretary
was peering."
No profession or class escaped the vigilance of her advisers. " In
1584 a visitation was instituted of the inns of court, the lawyers
being still constant to precedent and the old faith. . . . Conform-
ity of religion was made henceforth a condition of admission to the
bar. Commissions were issued in every county to examine suspected
magistrates on their allegiance, and if they gave uncertain answers
to remove or imprison them. There were or were believed to be
still five hundred Jesuits J and seminary Priests in England. A
* See " Acts of the Privy Council," Vol. XIH. f Froude.
I As a matter of fact, there were never more than "five Jesuits in Eng-
land, at one time, during Elizabeth's reign.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 161
great many had been seized and batches had from time to time been
executed. The council ordered that every Priest now under arrest
in any house or gaol should be examined on the authority of the
Pope. ... as many as should be thought requisite should suffer
death, others should be banished with judgment to be hanged if
they returned, others should be straightly imprisoned where they
could infect no one with their doctrine, while the charge of their
diet was to be furnished out of the forfeitures of the recusants, and
in Parliament (1584) an act was passed ordering all Jesuits and
seminary Priests to leave the realm within forty days. If they
remained beyond that time or returned; unless for special causes;
they were to suffer as traitors; and those who harbored them were
to be hanged as felons.*
Yet spite of all this, the little headway made by the New Estab-
lishment, especially in districts where Catholics held more or less
together, may be inferred from a letter in this year f of Cardinal
Allen, in which he states, that mass had never ceased to be said at
his family residence in Lancashire, every Sunday and on the anni-
versary of his brother's death ten masses.
No doubt the prevailing political confusion, the uncertainty as
to the succession, expectations of Elizabeth's marriage to some Cath-
olic Prince, with at least toleration for the old Faith, all, in addition
to purely religious considerations, contributed powerfully to the
aversion which the greater part of the nation felt to the Queen's ec-
clesiastical administration.
Mr. Froude remarks " As long as a single turn of the wheel, a
violent revolution, or the Queen's death, might place a Catholic
on the throne, the established Church held a mere conditional ex-
istence. It had no root in the nation, for every earnest man who
was not a Puritan was a Catholic; and its officers for the most part,
regarded their tenures ns an opportunity for enriching themselves
which would probably be short, and should in Prudence be made
use of while it remained.'^
The worst abuses of the unreformed system were revived or con-
tinued. Benefices were impropriated to laymen, sold or accumu-
lated upon favorites, churches in many places were left unserved
and cobblers and tailors were voted by the congregation into the
pulpits. "The Bishops," said Cecil,t "had no credit either for
* Froude. f 1584.
tMSS., November 28, 1585. Quoted by Froude.
VOL. VII.— 11.
162 THE OLOBE,
learning, good living, or hospitality." The Bishops who by their
teaching and devotion and relieving the ppor, ought to have won
credit among the people, were generally covetous and were rather
despised than reverenced or beloved. Sandys the Archbishop of
York, had scandalized his province, by being found in bed with
the wife of an innkeeper at Doncaster. Other Prelates for reasons
best known to themselves had bestowed ordination on men of lewd
life and corrupt behavior. The entire Bench was noted as avari-
cious. They had commenced business at the beginning of the reign
with alienating their livelihoods for the use of their children, giving
their families the lands of their sees on leases renewable forever.
Parliament having interfered, they gathered wealth by sparing or
made their fortunes by the help of the courtiers, by yielding to
make grants of their lands to the Queen's majesty, not for her profit,
but to be granted by Her Majesty to the Bishop's friends, so as they
would part stakes with such as could obtain such suits of Her
Majesty. To the Queen their performances were not of vital mo-
ment. She required qualities in her Bishops which were not com-
patible with elevation of character. . . . Elizabeth preferred
persons whom she could sound from their lowest note to the top
of their compass; and she accepted moral defects in consideration
of spiritual complacency.
The deep social changes in every class and their inter-relationship
engendered by the so-called English Eeformation have yet to be
worked out in detail and disentangled from the false light with
which religious prejudice has obscured the main results by confus-
ing them with side issues to which they possess no logical connec-
tion. Mr. Froude acknowledges, " that adulteration and fraud the
besetting sins of English tradesmen, had run rampant in the disor-
ganization of the ancient guilds. Two years before the coming of
the Armada more false cloth and woollen was made in England than
in all Europe besides. The aggregation of farms had recommenced
after the check which had been imposed upon it at the beginning
of the reign. The small holdings had been once more devoured by
the large. The labouring peasants had been huddled into vil-
lages where with no other tenement beyond the rooms which they
occupied, they were supported only by daily or weekly wages; while
through neglect in enforcing the statute of labourers, they had
been driven to accept such wages as the employers would give,
rather than the fair and just equivalent for their work which it was
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 168
still the theory of English legislators that they ought to receive.
It is interesting to observe that on the return of composure and
confidence the Parliament undertook to deal with these disorders
on the old principles. Besides stringent measures to check adultera-
tion and false weights, an act was passed that four acres of land
should be attached to every cottage intended to be occupied by an
agricultural labourer, for the use of him and his family. Another
act reinsisted on the breaking up of the large farms, the preamble
sharply marking the grounds on which the agglomeration was
disapproved. It might be true that the large cultivation was more
profitable in proportion to the labour employed upon it; hut the
interests of capitalists were not yet supreme, and the aim of Eliza-
beth's Parliament was * that by the maintenance of husbandry the
greater part of the subjects of the realm might be presei-ved from
extreme poverty, and the wealth of the realm be dispersed and dis-
tributed in many hands.' "
We have now arrived at a period at which it will be in place to
briefly examine the relation of the great mass of English Catholics
to the Spanish armada. Nor can it be doubted that over twenty
years of severe and unrelenting persecution of the Church in Eng-
land was one of the causes that led up to that memorable expedi-
tion. Nor can any candid Protestants; considering that they them-
selves twice changed the Dynasty; on religious grounds, at the
Revolution and accession of George I., reproach Catholics with hav-
ing sought extraneous assistance in the cause of religious liberty.
Indeed nothing but the deep reverence for authority and love of
country, so intertwined with every Catholic sentiment, can explain
the patience with which they had endured the horrors that I have
described in this and two previous articles. Mr. Froude justly re-
marks " The English Catholics as a body had given Elizabeth no
reason to complain of them. Through three-quarters of the nation
they had endured the proscription of their creed. They had sub-
mitted to make professions which they disapproved, or they had
paid for nonconformity by severe fines and by exclusion from the
public service. They had seen their spiritual knights-errant from
the seminaries imprisoned, racked and dying traitors' deaths and
they had not rebelled. They had refused, with a few passionate
exceptions, to sacrifice their country to their religion, and they had
proved at once that they were not the dupes of a wild fanaticism,
and that they could not and ought not to be permanently disabled
from a voice in the administration of their country."
164 THE GLOBE.
Cardinal Allen was distributor of Phillip's alms to the English
exiles for religion in Flanders, a position of great trust and delicacy,
but he certainly took no part in politics before the spring of 1582.
The movement which culminated in the despatch of the Spanish
Armada was in its origin essentially connected with Scotland. At
this time no invasion of England was anticipated, but for the pro-
tection of their own religion the Scottish nobles seem to have de-
sired a guard of soldiers from the Pope or Spanish king. Father
Parsons spent the winter of 1581-2 at Eouen where he conferred
with the Duke of Guise who as a near relation of Mary Queen of
Scots was anxious to put an end to her captivity. The cousin of
James, Esme Stuart who was known to be attached to the Catholic
religion was now in high favor with the young king and created
Duke of Lennox; he had crushed for the time the Elizabethan
party at the Scottish Court and Catholic hopes ran high. James
was only a boy of fifteen and although he had been educated a Prot-
estant might have probably been induced to change, which would
have secured him the support of the Pope and the King of Spain,
as well as the adherence of the English Catholic party for the suc-
cession. Father Creighton was sent to Scotland via Eouen in Jan-
uary, 1582, and returned to France the same spring, conferring with
the Archbishop of Glasgow and Allen at S. Dennys and proceeding
thence to Eouen with letters from Lennox to the Duke of Guise,
who seems to have soon left his chateau of Eu for Paris, where he
saw the Papal Nuncio; and the agent of Phillip, J. B. Tassis, was
also interviewed by Fathers Parsons and Creighton, who informed
him that the consciences of Catholics were much disturbed and that
the North of England was well disposed for some Catholic move-
ment. From the report of Tassis to Phillip, dated May 18, 1582,
it is clear that the Spanish agent was only a listener. He had no
official instruction to oppose or condemn. So far the design is dis-
tinctly of Scottish nature, English interests being secondary. The
Scotch borders being Catholic are to be gained over and Allen ap-
pointed Bishop of Durham. Dr. Owen Lewis was to be used to raise
Wales, where the new religion had as yet failed to penetrate.
The seizure of the young king in the Elizabethan interest by the
Earl of Gowrie at his Castle of Euthven, and the banishment and
subsequent death of Lennox, obviously altered the original concep-
tion of the enteiiprise and lost Scotland as a basis of operation; and
although James, acting with for him, unwonted courage and energy.
CATHOLICISM UNDER ELIZABETH. 1C5
recovered his freedom; yet the influence of Lennox removed and
becoming more infected with heresy as he increased in age, he relied
more on diplomatic measures to secure his mother's release and his
own eventual succession to the English crown. Although Philip
of Spain had, before this, consented to assist in the enterprise, he
remained inactive, whether from his habitual procrastination or
want of money as Father Knox surmises; or as I think more prob-
able from policy.
The death of the Duke of Anjou the heir apparent of the French
throne in 1584, constituted the Duke of Guise the natural champion
of the Catholic party in France, as against Henry of Navarre, who
although direct heir yet being a relapsed heretic would never have
been tolerated by the great majority of the nation. Under these
circumstances the energies of the Duke of Guise became necessarily
concentrated on home affairs and removed from the expedition.
Th execution of Mary Queen of Scots, who seems to have astutely
warned the Duke of Guise against the Spanish policy of the Com-
pany, yet by her will disinherited her son for heresy, threw every-
thing into the hands of Phillip, who now began to advance claims
to the succession, in virtue of his descent from John of Gaunt.
Nothing can be clearer by the extant state papers, than that both
the aged Pontiff Gregory Xlllth who died in 1585 and his successor
Clement Vth, were from beginning to end drags on the expedition.
While in all reason and charity unable to disapprove of any legiti-
mate measure for the restoration of the Faith in England; both
from prudence and the international obligations of their office they
directed their efforts to acquire, if possible, a peaceful toleration
by diplomatic methods; no doubt, also, clearly seeing through Phil-
lip's crafty design of almost universal empire, under cover of a
genuine zeal for the Faith.
The Catholics in England, who still remained numerically the
majority of the nation,* now became the objects of the suspicion of
Elizabeth's Government. We know, on the authority of Camden,
some of her advisers suggested that the leading Catholics should be
put to death and although this barbarous project was not executed,
the severest measures were put in force, "under the plea of pre-
caution, all recusant convicts were placed in custody; a return of
persons suspected for religion was required from the magistrates
* Allen was certain two-thirds.
166 THE OLOBE,
of the Capital; in several counties, perhaps in all, domiciliary
searches were made; crowds of Catholic of both sexes, and of every
rank, were dragged to the common jails throughout the Kingdom
and the clergy from their pulpits declaimed with vehemence against
the tyranny of the Pope and the treachery of the Papists." *
The real feelings of the English Catholics is accurately portrayed
in a letter from the celebrated Dr. Gifford, Dean of Lille afterwards
Archbishop of Kheims, to Cecil dated April 18, 1586, in which after
returning thanks for safe conduct granted to him to visit England
on private affairs, he strongly implores toleration; while not deny-
ing that some ardent spirits, maddened by nearly thirty years' severe
persecution might be driven to welcome any means having for its
object the restoration of religious liberty; which however he
strongly disapproves of and denounces; and it is only fair to say
that the very ecclesiastic accused of the most extreme furtherance
of the Spanish interest, Father Parsons, in a letter from Se\'ille,
dated April 4, 1591, complains, " that at no time, either at the time
of the Armada or since have the English Catholics been consulted
or trusted by Phillip," and we know that without exception the
Catholic nobility and gentry armed their tenants and dependents
in the Queen's service, equipped vessels and gave the command to
Protestants, and when not trusted with the leadership asked per-
mission to fight in the ranks against the invader; as the old Prot-
estant historian, Stowe, records, " not one man appeared to favour
the Spaniard, the very Papists themselves being no less unwilling
than the rest to see their native country in subjection," and even
the prisoners for religion at Ely declared their readiness to take up
arms against the enemies of their sovereign.
England. Thomas E. H. Williams.
FOREGLEAMS— SONNETS.
THE MASTER SINGERS.
Within the harmony of thy great soul,
0 life seraphic 1 all our music dwells ;
The brooklet music of the dappled dells ;
The requiem anthems that forever roll
• Lingard.
FOREGLEAMS— SONNETS. 167
Along the ocean waves, from pole to pole;
The thunder's martial march, that, rising, swells
To mighty triumph, and thy glory tells; —
The songs of birds and children, sans control.
But in the master singers thou dost rise
To harmony divine: In Mendelssohn,
In Beethoven, the singing earth and skies
And angels, all thy quenchless songs intone.
Aflame with love's own bleeding sacrifice —
The songs of songs, that, last, must reign alone.
SIGNS AFAK.
The tremble of the birches in the breeze;
The flutter of our thoughts, when life is still;
The prattle of a tiny mountain rill,
Far echoed in the voices of the trees;
The sullen murmur of the raging seas;
The twitter of the song-bird's happy trill;
The blushes of the early dawn that fill
The waiting skies with splendor, — ^what are these.
My life, my love, my soul, but signs afar
And near, to comfort, to console and cheer
The lost, as was the sign of that famed star
Of Bethlehem, now to mankind so dear ?
And what the heavenly ministry of pain,
But golden sunlight in the garnered grain ?
LOVE'S CALVARY.
0 I life, in all thy countless flowering weeds.
Thou still art beautiful, as in the day
When first the heaven-planted, fragrant May,
The rose and primrose sprang from Eden's seeds —
Long ere the cant of vexing, clashing creeds
Had robbed the world of its sure guiding ray
Of faith and love adown time's dusty way.
Whereon men fell 'neath over-burdened deeds.
168 THE GLOBE,
And all along the dawning skies, where stars
Their faithful vigils keep at da/s decline;
In every act of love that heals the scars
Of hate and war thy radiant face doth shine
With beauty which time neither blasts nor mars —
But on love's Calvary thou art all divine.
THE HEART OF NATUEE TRUE.
I think the heart of N'ature must be true—
For in these moments when my anxious heart
Kept questioning — or would my friends depart
And walk no more with me — as yon traitors flew
When words of living truth — like morning dew
Fell from the Master's lips — or bear their part
Of that dire hate for words of mine that smart
And rankle in the envious bastard crew —
Just now — ^as on the wings of angels — ^bome
Across the radiant, echoing skey.
Come words as if from human souls were shorn
Of all but love and life and truth: — so fly
The doves of Peace that lead unto each mom
And so must fly, till life itself shall die.
THE ROSY FINGERS OF DAWN".
Along the crimson pulses of the mom;
Up through the rosy fingers of the day,
I trace the throbbings of that loving sway
Was bom of God, ere time itself was bom;
And far beyond the realms of night and scom.
And far beyond the realms of light, its ray, —
As in the roses and the new-mown hay, —
Doth all God's universe inspire, adorn.
Yea, most of all where least its light would seem
To live, or breathe, or shine, or even dwell
As faintly as within the gates of hell: —
In human grief and agony, its gleam
Hath filled our world with love's own rarest song.
Which, through the ceaseless ages rolls along.
FOREGLSlAMS—aONNETa. 169
KISSING THE MAY. '. f:
Quickly, toward the rosy dawn of day,
We lift our waiting and our grateful eyes,
To greet the new-bom glory of the skies;
And as the sun pursues his royal way, —
Touching the rose with light, kissing the May,
Painting all lands with splendor, man still vies
With man, and in all languages still tries
To weave its chaplet, its immortal bay.
And why should not all nations fly to song
In view of that divinely richer mom.
In which the stars' angelic, joyous throng
Sang greeting, since the Prince of Peace was bom ?
For then, through life and love's immortal sea
The soul was found that won love's victory.
AT MIDKEGHT.
Amid the murmur of the mighty sea.
At midnight when the air is thick and still.
And in the day, when raging billows fill
The very heavens with wild mutiny
Of mad and wrecking storm, — thy victory
0 Love, my love ! through every flash and thrill
Is manifest, as in the rippling rill,
AU sunlight, flowing onward in its glee.
Yea, through the shriekings of the lost I see
Thy ever shining face, and hear thee say.
That pain and anguish, at thy voice, shall flee.
And e'en death's blackest darkness turn to day;
And I believe thee, in the night, and pray.
That thou wouldst ever lead me thine own way.
OUR LIPE HEROIC.
In truth we held thee quite immortal where
Yon Httle band of Grecians kept at bay
Countless hordes of Persians, and, Thermopylae
Stands out in everlasting glory there,
170 THE GLOBE.
Because our life heroic, stainless, fair
Held up the record of the years, that day;
Nor aught can dim the warrior's rich array
Of splendor, or his mighty deeds impair.
But, to stand alone, in close league with truth-
To see the cherished face of God's own love.
Whose fadeless beauty long hath held thy youth
Entranced with glory, fade — and heaven above
Shut down in utter darkness — still to say —
" I conquer " — leads the universe thy way.
A WOELD-DEEAM.
It seems to me that in the dawning day
Of our own mortal life upon this ball
Of earth there was a two-fold act we call
Creation, and that when the " gods " did say
Let us make man unto our image they
Had long since finished earth and man and all
Material things far beyond recall: —
That then the work began which lasts for aye.
That is, the quenchless moral work and war;
The spiritual creation — the fall:
The battle manifold, the mighty scar
Of agony and death that in one small
Hour did revive the sting of death and pain,
Which, conquered, we, God's glory shall attain.
SUN-FED SOULS.
And shall I say that love itself is dead,
Because, perchance, it may not smile on me ?
Or yet, because of wrecks upon the sea.
That angels from the universe have fled ?
That martyrs who the mighty ages led —
Whose sun-fed souls went out in agony.
Hissed by serpent lips of foul infamy —
Are not by everlasting fountains fed ? —
FOREaLEAMS— SONNETS, 171
Though sharper than a serpent's tooth, the sting
Of thanklessness in friend and foe and child
May bum into my very soul and ring
The changes of ingratitude — the wild,
Deep curse that rules the nations of our day ?
Nay ! — ^but that God and love are one, alway.
LOVE-ENAMOURED FLOWERS.
The love-enamoured flowers, 0 love, are thine !
The honeysuckle's ever fragrant breath; —
Fond roses blooming on the graves of death;
Spring's first violets and the columbine;
The pansy, which has ever stood for sign
Of all the fondest thoughts the lover saith
Of love beneath the stars, ere vanisheth
The trust that doth all loving hearts entwine.
The primrose and the cowslips all to thee
Do lift their fragrant, their adoring eyes,
Or bow their heads in sweetest modesty: —
So charming is thy charm in earth and sMes;
So bright the ever penetrating glee
Of thy dear light, 0 love ! that never dies.
MINOR-TONED.
I love thee in the roseate dawn of day;
In every little wild flower of the plain.
I love thee e'en w'hen life and love are pain;
When sun and stars have vanished quite away,
With all the friendships of this life astray.
And all the music of the world's refrain
Is minor-toned with death — Thou wilt regain,
I say, the heights of love, and reign alway.
I know that life was even born of love.
The proudest crest upon each mighty wave
That bringeth death to me — as yon sweet dove
Of peace — is pledge that thou wilt always save
The deathless sunlight of thy sun-born soul
And pierce all realms of death though demons rave.
172 TEE GLOBE.
«
HOW LONG, 0! GOD?
When I reflect on all the ways I've trod,
In wandering through these three-score years ;
When I recall the blighted hopes — ^the fears.
The dread of countless spectres, and the rod
Of heaven's righteous vengeance — see the sod
To right and left, now grave-crowned — full of tears —
That mine is but the lot of all my peers.
While thousands, far less blest, are forced to plod
Through poveri^y and darkness, lust and shame;
Through hunger, contumely, bitter wrongs.
Compared with which my life is sun-crowned fame;
And when I see earth's countless, eager throngs
Hiding the curse that hurts, bearing the hod
Of burden, sore, — How long — ^I say — 0 ! God ?
William Henry Thorni
FATHER CASAS ON THE CUBAN REBELLION.
"La Guerra Separatista de Cuba" — "The Separatist War in
Cuba ; its causes, means of ending it, and how to avoid another,"
by Dr. John Bautista Casas, was brought out in Madrid in 1896.
The work first appeared as a series of articles in the Madrid Press,
and attracted so much attention, that it was subsequently issued in
book form.
Dr. Casas is a doctor of divinity ; a priest in the Catholic Church,
and was Governor of the Bishopric of the Diocese of Havana from
July 20, 1893, to November 16, 1894, during the absence of the
regular incumbent.
The thesis of this work is : Dread of annexation of Cuba to the
United States, and the trend of the author is to uphold monarchical
institutions, to establish the supremacy of the Catholic Church,
wage a propaganda against Protestantism and Free Masonry, and
to bind Cuba still more closely to Spain. Not, however, by the in-
troduction of reforms in administration or home rule. The first he
considers equivalent to Pandora's box which only contained calam-
ities ; the second the preliminary step towards separation from the
FATHER CAS AS ON THE CUBAN REBELLION, 173
Mother Country and independence. Although willing to concede
their rights or fueros to Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia, should they
demand autonomy, he does not consider that Cubans have any
right, to demand reforms — because he believes that Cuba belongs to
Spain by the right of conquest, colonization and sovereignty.
The author decries the enthusiastic admiration of Cubans for the
United States, and attributes all rebellious sentiments against Spain
to American influence. From childhood Cubans acquire a love for
the Great Kepublic, and Cubans prefer the United States to Spain
for educational purposes. The worthy prelate is most bitter in his
denunciation of Americans, whom he persists in calling Yankees.
And he warns Cubans of the terrible fate in store for them should
Cuba ever become annexed to the United States, stating that the
indomitable Yankee would absorb or annihilate them, or if any
were able to survive his supremacy, that he would be despised by his
stronger brother.
" The American eagle now threatens to despoil us of Cuba, as it
did of Texas, New Mexico, and California, as well as Louisiana at an
earlier period," he says. " It may yet seize Mexico, and all Spanish
America if we do not clip its wings. Yankeeism and f oreignism are
the real causes of ill-will towards Spain. From their earliest days
Cubans are taught to admire every other country except the Mother
Country," Dr. Casas goes on to say.
"Protestantism is another powerful factor against Spanish do-
minion, for Protestant preachers scoff at our country. A Cuban
Protestant is anti-Catholic as much as anti-Spanish and usually
changes his faith on account of his hatred to Spain. The first and
foremost object of a Cuban apostate is to take out naturalization
papers as an American citizen. And when he returns to Cuba he
shields himself in the folds of the Stars and Stripes, in order to
defy the Spanish flag.
" Free Masonry also is a turbulent factor in Cuba because that
institution is and has always been anti-Spanish." Dr. Casas would
increase the supremacy of the Catholic Church, and would choose
good, faithful sons of the Church for public office. Furthermore
he would provide a spiritual counsellor for each and every gov-
ernor. In addition, to strengthen the power of the Church he would
establish an ecclesiastical censorship to watch public functionaries,
call them to account, hold them for trial and remove them from
office if need be, such acts being authorized by the Colonial Minister.
174 THE GLOBE.
The author dwells on the plan he proposes of concentration in
towns and cities, and to compel the rural population to abandon
their little homes, which he advises burning to the ground. They
would thus be obliged to eke out a subsistence within the city limits,
and could hold no intercourse with the rebels.
Dr. Casas would wage war with sword and fire, and set loose
hounds to hunt down the hapless insurgents. He believes also in
patrolling the coast to keep off filibustering expeditions from land-
ing. As the thick growth of shrubs and vegetation along the coast
and lowlands provides a safe hiding-place for the rebels, he would
have this cleared away, and the debris burned after saturating it
with petroleum. To destroy alligators and snakes and other ven-
omous creatures which infest the swamps, — and he infers that the
insurgents might be included, — he advises throwing poisoned meat
to them, and then using some disinfectant to clear the atmosphere.
Dr. Casas also recommends the use of balloons in the army to
reconnoitre the enemy's quarters.
The author believes that the seeds of rebellion were sown
through readers in cigar factories, and would forbid such diversions,
as while the skillful fingers of the listener are manipulating the
fragrant weed, their ears are eagerly catching socialistic and revolu-
tionary theories.
" Anarchism and naniguismo (a secret society of negroes and des-
peradoes) are rampant in Cuba," Dr. Casas adds. " And the latter is
the outcome of the evils of the slave trade, for the African race has
always been refractory to Christian teaching, and apt to relapse
into its primitive barbarism and evil proclivities, the curse which
has descended to that unhappy people from the time of Noah."
Dr. Casas advises Spain to seek an alliance with England, who
helped her to drive out the French invader during the Napoleonic
regime, when the ill-starred Joseph Buonaparte occupied the throne
of Spain. He scorns any alliance with France — as she has always
been a marplot — and he refers to the time when Spain joined
France to lend assistance to the American colonies in securing their
independence from England, while he attributes her subsequent loss
of Spanish America to that fact.
Commercial relations between two countries serve to bind them
more closely — therefore Dr. Casas advises reciprocity and free trade
between Spain and Cuba.
He would add to the number and power of religious orders of the
FATHER CABAS ON THE CUBAN REBELLION. 175
Catholic Church in Cuba, and increase Catholic teaching and propa-
gate that faith to a greater degree. Dr. Casas would also deprive
Cubans of their immunity from conscription. He would also keep
alive sectional feeling in Cuba by promotion of Spanish patriotic
societies.
Civil marriage was the bone of contention between ecclesiastics
and civil authorities in Cuba at the period that law was made valid
in Sfpanish territory. Dr. Casas was opposed to this, and refused to
abide by the law, or to allow access to parish registers for copies
of baptismal papers for parties about to contract a civil marriage.
For this refusal to comply with the new edict he was sentenced
as an enemy of the State to fourteen years' banishment from Span-
ish territory. But he appealed from the sentence of the Havana
Court, to a higher court, and the sentence was abrogated. In his
panegyric on Spain the author would go back to the days of Torque-
mada, Philip II. and the Duke of Alva.
" The war in Cuba is not a racial war," Dr. Casas says, " although
it may become so, as I think that the most intelligent men of the
colored race cherish ambitious designs which they now conceal from
policy. Although several Cuban leaders were colored men, yet the
majority are white.
" The population of Cuba was 1,600,000 according to the census
taken in 1887. There are 500,000 colored people, 80,000 Chinese,
and the balance is white. It is calculated that Cuba can maintain
six millions of people.
" According to Cuban sympathizers," he proceeds, " the economic
crisis was the cause of the war, but they take this as a pretext to
cast off Spanish dominion. The separatists allege that Spain com-
pelled Cuba to receive Spanish products while she restricted ex-
portation from Cuban markets, but the fact is that foreign nations
flood the Cuban market with their goods, especially the United
States.
" The sugar trade has been injured by the beet sugar of Europe,
but Cuban planters should try to manufacture sugar by some
cheaper process."
Dr. Casas dwells on the enormous wealth of natural resources in
that beautiful Island, which only require development.
" The separatists and those anxious for annexation to the United
States complain of the ineptitude of government employees, and
home legislation," he adds. " ' Cuba for Cubans ! ' they cry. Some
176 THE OLOBE.
even say they would gladly drain their veins of Spanish blood. War
and banishment are the only arguments against such traitors."
Mutterings and rumblings announced the irruption of the polit-
ical volcano, and rumors were rife that the separatists in Las Villas
were about to raise the banner of revolt on January 24, 1895, in
Cuba. The Spanish authorities lent little attention to these rumors,
and like the old story of the wolf, paid no heed to danger until the
wolf appeared.
The outbreak finally occurred in February, 1895.
Previous to that event, Serafin, Sanchez, Quesada and Jos6 Marti
were actively engaged in raising funds among the tobacconists in
Florida, and in fitting out filibustering expeditions for Cuba.
Havana has an university with chairs of law, lelles lettres, philos-
ophy, natural sciences, mathematics, medicine and pharmacy.
There are six institutes in other towns. Furthermore Havana pos-
sesses a conservatory of music, an art league, school for technical
design and two normal colleges.
The Belen College of the Jesuit Fathers and the Montserrat in
Cuenfuegos and the Padres Escolapios's College in Guanabacoa are
partly sustained by government.
Father Vines, one of the Jesuits, is an eminent meteorologist.
" Cuba is a sort of footstool for the great North American Re-
public while it serves also as a barrier to prevent it from encroaching
further south." Dr. Casas says that if Cuba should belong to the
United States that country with its exuberance and impetus would
fall upon the other Antilles, would constantly threaten Venezuela,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Salvador and Nicaragua — and
would oppress Mexico, as it already does in the northwest. There-
fore Europe should not look with favor on this possibility, because
it would injure her commerce — ^which would be monopolized by
the United States of America.
" Another factor to be considered in the Cuban problem is the
climate, which is so enervating, it is only by change of air that its
inhabitants are able to keep healthy, while the infusion of fresh
blood is needed to keep up the population. This immigration
should come from Spain, but not from the United States, because
if Cuba should separate herself from the mother country, Yankees,
white and black, would overrun the Island and dominate and ex-
terminate as they always do, and native Cubans would disappear,
or if one were left, he would be considered an inferior race.
FATHER GASA8 ON THE CUBAN REBELLION. 177
"The United States is tihe instigator and abettor of the war
against Spain, with selfish views, but we warn her if she succeeds in
her designs, she will be the sufferer through the realization of her
selfish schemes."
" The black man was cursed in Noah's time, and still suffers un-
der that curse. The religion of Jesus Christ redeemed all mankind,
but nations as well as individuals of the colored race still refuse
to participate in that privilege. The Black Continent refused Chris-
tianity, and is victim of slavery imposed by the Evil One, and pas-
sions of bad men. But Christian doctrines prevailed in Cuba and
slavery was abolished in 1885.
" Good, upright and pious Catholics should be appointed gov-
ernors over the different provinces of Cuba." And Dr. Casas consid-
ers that two or three priests designated by their superiors, and ap-
pointed by government, should be chosen as their counsellors. He
adds that the practice of seeking spiritual advisers is not new, as
in olden times monarchs and leaders always consulted the clergy
before embarking on any great undertaking.
Their advice and co-operation should be gratuitous during the
war, but the state should provide them with all that they need for
their daily expenditures.
" A friar should accompany every battalion, and watch over the
morals of the troops," he says.
" Sisters of Charity should attend to the commissary department."
" Neither pensions nor promotion should be conferred during the
war. But after the war is over all meritorious officers should be
promoted."
"No chief who openly displays an envious rivalry towards his
fellow-officers should be tolerated in the army.
"No official news of the campaign should be published, or at
least, all news should be kept back as long as possible.
" No officer should be allowed to publish any speculations in re-
gard to the outcome of the struggle.
" Greater attention should be paid to hygiene, and proper care
taken of the troops and their comfort as well as morals."
Dr. Casas also advocates a strict censorship, and suppression of all
pamphlets or books unfavorable to Spain.
" In order to prevent complaints, discord and wars in future,"
Dr. Casas says, " it would be better not to vest the command of the
Island of Cuba in one man alone, who cannot be a brave general
VOL. VII.— 12.
178 THE GLOBE.
and an able civil governor at the same time. A valiant soldier is
not always a good statesman, neither is a good statesman always
capable of commanding an army, although each may excel in his
own particular calling. Therefore it would be better to divide the
government of Cuba into different branches of civil and military
government."
Dr. Casas admits that corruption and abuses exist among the
Custom house and Revenue officers, and that such abuses also exist
in the bureaucracy in Spain, " to a smaller degree."
Dr. Casas approves of the command of sucli men as Polavieja and
Salmeron, while he heartily disapproves of mild, benignant rulers
like Vives, Lersundi, Dulce and Jeronimo Valdes, the latter espe-
cially, who introduced a number of so-called political and economic
reforms, during the unsettled period of Spanish history from 1833
to 1840 — ^when the constitution and parliamentary system was ac-
climated in Spain.
Dr. Casas would like to see such rulers as Tacon, or statesmen like
Villanueva rule over Cuba.
" Different peoples require special legislation," Dr. Casas says.
" For example Rome extended certain privileges to her conquered
colonies in order to pacify them. Teodoredo demanded certain
rights which were conceded by the Moorish conqueror to his Span-
ish subjects in order to make his yoke less galling.
When Aragon, Catalonia and other provinces united, each
preserved its fueros or privileges, which unfortunately have been
gradually disappearing since the fatal French centralization policy
invaded Spain. Other confederated peoples, not having any ancient
laws, reserved the right to manufacture their own, as the Americans
did in the greater part of the branches of legislation. Some Ara-
bian kings of Spain became tributary to the Christian ruler, either
through force of arms or because they needed help against their
enemies.
Autonomy or self-government is the right that a province pos-
sesses to administrate its own affairs separately or independently
from the mother country. Dr. Casas declares what is really meant
is that the province or country desires to set up housekeeping for
itself. " So long as everything goes smoothly," he adds, " they do
not remember their parents, but if tempests come, and they find
themselves in trouble, they call on their dear father and mother to
help them.
AN OOTAVE. 179
" The autonomist hoists his banner on his feudal domain up far
enough so that all the world ma}^ see it, but they are somewhat like
the Jansenists who venerated the Eucharistic bread so highly, that
they kept it on an altar near the roof, or an arch of the temple.
" Autonomists desire to govern themselves without the expense
of representation abroad, which they leave to the mother country,
while they allow her to send out a governor in name only.
"^ Such is the autonomy desired for Cuba, as a heroic measure to
cure the Island of all moral and administrative evils which now af-
flict her and by which to dissipate all troubles, discord and civil
war."
" The Decalogue is the best model for legislation," Dr. Casas
sententiously observes. " It embraces all the different races of the
earth, every land and every clime — while it defines all the rights
of man and all his duties."
Pkisoilla Alden.
New York.
AN OCTAVE.
To me, the groaning of world-worshippers
Eings like a lonely music played in hell
By one with art enough to cleave the walls
Of heaven with his cadence, but without
The wisdom and the will to comprehend.
The strangeness of his own perversity,
And all without the courage to disclaim
The profit and the pride of his defeat.
Edwin Aelington Eobinson.
Gardiner, Me.
180 TUB GLOBE.
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY.
I HAVE made the title brief even at the risk of ambiguity; but
in writing this article I have in mind three distinct phases of mod-
ern American Catholic evolution, which I wish and intend to con-
demn with all the ability in my power, and at the same time to
point out what seems to me the only true Catholic cure for the evils
under review.
In order to justify my manner of approaching and treating this
subject I quote from various sources the definitions and conduct
of certain prominent Catholics bearing upon the different phases
of Catholic agitation involved in the title of this article. It seems
that His Holiness, Pius IX., once wrote — " Liberal Catholicism is
a heresy," and it would seem that his definition ought to have been
sufficient for all time; but we make and unmake history fast in
these days, and when you imagine, for instance, that His Grace,
Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul, is at home quietly looking after the
spiritual affairs of his diocese and attending to the vast financial
interests of his own personal investments, the first thing you know
he is in Washington looking after the appointment of his friend,
Storer, of Cincinnati, to some diplomatic position in the gift of
McEinley and at the same time playing substitute for his absent
friend " Keane," in defending " American Liberalism," etc., in the
Catholic Church; — and all this during the Lenten season.
The tail end of the above paragraph was occasioned by reading
the following "Washington dispatch which explains itself.
" Archbishop is Angry. Ireland Bitterly Resents the Published
Attack of Mgr. Schroeder, of Catholic University. Wasliington,
April 5. — Archbishop Ireland has made a bitter attack upon Mgr.
Joseph Schroeder, the Professor of GTerman at the Catholic Uni-
versity, for the latter's recent attack on certain prelates of the
Church, and has invoked the aid of Mgr. Martinelli, the Apostolic
Delegate.
" The trouble was caused by an article signed by Mgr. Schroeder
attacking the liberals. After the use of terms such as * the liberal-
ism that luxuriates in the garden of the Church like tares sown by
Satan,' the article went on to accuse certain prelates of absolute
heresy.
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 181
" Mgr. Schroeder disclaims responsibility for tliis particular ar-
ticle, but says that he did write such an article in German, and
adds that he will not retract a single sentence of it."
At this point I wish to say with the profoundest sincerity of which
I am capable that I deeply deplore the revival in the public press
of what is known as the contest between Germanism and American
Liberalism in the Catholic Church. I think that there was no need
of this public revival. I think that all parties to the controversy
should have fought out their differences in private contention either
before His Grace Martinelli, the Pope's representative in this coun-
try, or before the Pope, himself: — and I thoroughly despise this
eternal parade of certain prelates before the American public.
If they believe that the voice of the people, or the voice of the
newspapers, is the voice of God, in God's name let them quit their
prelatical robes and honors and appeal for once and all to the
Palladium of public opinion and go to the devil where they and
public opinion belong: but if they believe that the voica of the Pope
is the voice of God — and if they are good Catholics they cannot
help believing this — then in God's name let them appeal their dif-
ferences to the Pope alone and abide forever by his decision.
I do not here intend to venture to define what Leo Thirteenth's
decision has been on the subject of American Catholic Liberalism.
All well-instructed Catholics know this. Bishop Keane's removal
from the Catholic University at Washington and his present well-
understood position in Eome all testify to this. That Mgr. Schroe-
der should have been moved to chastise the final utterances of
Bishop Keane before he went to Rome was not surprising; never-
theless, I think that Schroeder was unfortunate and perhaps un-
charitable to a fallen foe in so chastising him. But this phase of
our subject will come more naturally when we speak of nationalism.
At present I wish to confine my remarks to so-called American
" Catholic Liberalism."
We have seen Pius Ninth's estimate of it. We know too well
from recent experiences, just named, what is Leo Thirteenth's esti-
mate of it. Nevertheless, and in spite of these oral and practical
definitions of the last two popes, our much-admired friend Father
Lambert is quoted as having said, " The word ' Liberalism ' is a ven-
erable bugaboo. Like all bugbears of the nursery it frightens only
those who do not stop to enquire of what stuff it is made." Quite
in harmony with this, though more foolishly committal in a posi-
182 THE OLOBE,
tive way, a Northwestern Catholic paper recently said that " Liber-
alism is religion unadulterated with reactionary politics."
By reactionary politics as here used I suppose we are to under-
stand what our friend, Priest Zurcher, of Buffalo, N. Y., would call
" European ideas," etc.
Two years ago it was my good fortune to be called to revise for
publication the very extended and elaborate manuscript of one of
the ablest Kedemptorist Fathers now resident in this country, — said
manuscript being in review of the " Vatican Council and Catholic
Orthodoxy." In this manuscript several thorough and most pains-
taking chapters were given to the consideration and refutation of so-
called " Catholic Liberalism."
From said manuscript wherein were quoted the publicly spoken
and printed utterances of certain American prelates, — here, for the
time being, at least, to be nameless, — ^it was plain as the nose upon
your face that, strictly speaking, and in any exact, theological and
historic Catholic sense, some of our prelates not only were not ortho-
dox, but apparently deemed the matter of exact Catholic theological
orthodoxy of about as little moment as the late Phillips Brooks,
Bishop of Boston, considered it.
Hence it is now and long has been perfectly clear to the editor
of the Globe Keview that in this matter in any contest between
Mgr. Schroeder and Archbishop Ireland, or any other American
prelate who chooses to pose as the champion of Catholic Liberalism,
Schroeder is right, and the posing "Liberal" prelate wrong and
sure to be condemned as wrong by the eternal authority of Rome.
I am not a priest — hence I do not wish to go into the exact defi-
nitions of Catholic orthodoxy as opposed to Catholic Liberalism, —
but in due time I will make it plain enough that I have studied
theology alike from Protestant and Catholic standards — and I may
suggest here, for instance, that any Liberal Catholic priest or prelate
who teaches that Protestant Christian faith is sufficient for salva-
tion is in absolute heresy from the standpoint of all Catholic ortho-
doxy; though no Catholic pretends to limit the possible extension
of the mercy of Almighty God, or its application to Protestant
rebels, or to pagan unbelievers, holding all the while, however, that
when such pagans or Protestants are saved they are saved by this
mercy of heaven, extended to them in consideration of their invinc-
ible ignorance of true Catholic faith, and not by virtue of their
Protestant or pagan faith at all.
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 183
In this way I simply hint at one of the phases of modem so-called
" Catholic Liberalism," especially as held in America to-day.
Again, other Catholic priests and prelates are enamored of our
American ideas of human equality, — of Public School instruction,
— of Neal Dow Temperance reform, — of secular Summer School
humbuggery, — of promiscuous Religious Congresses, and the like, —
etc., etc., — and their Liberalism is such that they denounce, plot
against and deliberately misrepresent and try to ruin any and all
Catholics who do not run with their gangs; whereas Catholic ortho-
doxy is inclined to the simple " reactionary " teachings of our Lord
as expounded by His Church, with unvarying, yet with cumulative
clearness, consistency and authority, during these last nineteen hun-
dred years — the last exponents and friends of this being Pius IX.
and Leo XIII.
Of course this is reactionary, especially when applied personally
to gad-about, light weight, liberal Catholic reformers bent on sub-
stituting some fad for the religion of Jesus Christ.
Any careful and candid examination of the points and pretensions
of Catholic Liberalism, here very imperfectly hinted at, will con-
vince every intelligent reader that Fr. Lambert's definition of it is
very wide of the mark and reads very much as if he, in his old days,
were trying to straddle the question, — though this is very unlike
his usual way of proceeding.
In a word it will be seen that American Catholic Liberalism flies
in the face of some of the most ancient as well as the most recent
and most important rulings of the Popes and is in fact as truly
heretical as was Arianism or Lutheranism in days gone by.
In fine, it will be seen that so far from being " religion unadulter-
ated with reactionary politics," it is the quintessence of irreligion,
that is, rebellion against divine authority as to dogma, etc.; and
further that it is at lieart the darling of the most impious of our
American national politics, the very child of falsehood and of hell —
simply a new outcropping of the old reactionary politics of the
Devil himself the essence of which as I understand it, was proud
rebellion against divine authority.
In a word Catholic Liberalism is simply Americanism carried into
Catholic theology and Catholic discipline ; that is, it is a negation
of all that the Church has stood for, suffered and died for, since
our Lord, himself, was crucified.
I do not pretend to intimate that Keane and Ireland and their lay
184 THE GLOBE,
followers see it in this light, or that they would dare to pursue their
mad career of ignorance, if they saw it in this light ; but their
ignorance of the truth does not in the slightest lessen its importance
or excuse their madness ; and some of us, who have suffered through
all phases of modem Liberalism, so-called, in order to reach clear and
all-embracing Catholic truth, will be the last in the world to yield
either to their ignorance or their splurging and soaring pretensions.
At this point I must still further call attention to the fact that
modem Catholic or Protestant Liberalism, so-called, is not only
heterodox, ignorant and based on falsehood, but that at the same
time it is the most illiberal, tyrannical and unjust of all modem
phases of religious belief or pretension of belief.
Many years ago, after quitting the Presbyterian ministry, I
preached for two or three years in various Unitarian churches. East
and West, and the uniform testimony of so-called " liberal " preach-
ers and congregations proved to me that what the New England
preachers called " Liberal Hunkerism " was the hardest and narrow-
est phase of all so-called Christian faith. In short, hide bound
Boston Unitarianism was the severest foe that Emerson and Parker
ever found, though itself in the last stages of heresy.
Unfortunately I am bound to confess that the same features be-
tray themselves in so-called Catholic Liberalism. In a word Cath-
olic American Liberalism not only insists upon bossing the con-
science the belief and the conduct of the universe, but will damn
you on its own personal dicta, if you resist its tyranny.
In this connection I wish to drive the nail into the brazen head
of another falsehood originated and sent broadcast through the
newspapers by so-called Catholic Liberalism.
In the December Globe Review, of 1896, in pointing out certain
absurd falsehoods published in the Ledger, of Philadelphia, concern-
ing Bishop Keane's removal, I briefly stated that whatever divisions
there might be in the Catholic Church in this country, it was as
false as it was scandalous to assert that the Church was divided into
two opposing armies known as Americanism and Germanism. I
did not go into the matter, then, because I hoped that the fool
newspaper Catholic screamers over Keane's removal would subside
and not oblige me at least to point out their many and glaring
weaknesses. It seems, however, that the controversy will not down ;
and, as it looks to me, Keane and Ireland are primarily to blame
for this and that Schroeder is only secondarily to blame for it, if.
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 185
indeed, he is to blame at all. But, be the blame where it may, the
contention is on again and in the public newspapers.
Let me lay a few rays of light across it.
In the first place, let it be remembered that, as defined by Pius
IX. and Leo XIIL, Catholic Liberalism is heresy. In the next
place let it be remembered that American Catholic Liberalism is
the worst, the most ignorant, the most tyrannical and the most
unreasonable form of this heresy. Next, let it be remembered that
at least nine thousand out of the ten thousand Catholic priests and
prelates in the United States to-day — not to speak of the thousands
in Canada and South America — have no sympathy with this Catho-
lic Liberalism, but are simply good and true and loyal Catholic
priests and prelates, well satisfied with their vocation and sure that
it is Clod's own perfect way of redeeming the world and leading all
nations into His truth. Let it be further remembered that these
nine thousand priests and prelates are the cultured representatives
of all modem civilized Christian nations, — a majority of them are
probably Irish and of Irish descent, — ^but they are also English and
of English descent — American bom, French, Italian, German and
of German descent ; — but to class this nine thousand, out of the
ten thousand priests in the United States, as German is a simple
and infamous falsehood ; to class them as foreign is a scandalous
libel. They are no more foreign than Keane and Ireland ; thou-
sands of them not as much so. In a word the vast majority — say
at least nine-tenths of the Catholic priests, prelates, and people, of
the United States — are tme and loyal Catholics, as all Catholics
have been true and loyal these last nineteen hundred years, hence
the newspaper and other talk to the effect that there is an American
party and a German party in the Catholic Church in the United
States, the one representing progressive American ideas and the
other representing reactionary German ideas, is a baseless and in-
famous falsehood.
If, then, you ask me how it has come about that such a repeated
representation of the case has been published and asserted, I answer
plainly that when a few years ago the Germans in the United States,
feeling that they were being wronged in a prejudicial apportionment
of the priests of their own language, entered complaint at Rome —
just as the French Catholics have done in later years — a self-styled
committee of American prelates, headed by Ireland and Keane,
went to Eome and deliberately misrepresented to the Pope alike
186 THE GLOBE.
the claims, aims, complaints and position of said German complain-
ants ; further, that when Satolli first came here these same leaders
of " American Catholic Liberalism " captured him and for a time
roped in other prelates on the ground of and only through the same
misrepresentations that they had made at Eome. And this went on
until the Pope was disabused, until Satolli was disabused, until a
half dozen of the most prominent American prelates were disabused
— in a word until the nefarious misrepresentations of two or three
persistent so-called Catholic Liberals were fully understood at Rome
and by all the leading prelates of America, except Ireland and
Keane, — and, cut to the quick, it takes a vivid imagination to name
these gentlemen as leading American prelates at all.
I am grieved beyond measure to feel obliged to say these things ;
but they are God's truth, and, unless Ireland and Keane can repent,
they are certainly damned.
If you ask my authority for this arraignment I refer you to a
pamphlet published last year by Fr. Zurcher, of Buffalo, N. Y., one
of the few stanch friends of Ireland and Keane, a man who did not
intend, by any means, to make the revelations his pamphlet contains.
If you ask me how it is, then, that a few men in the Catholic
Church in the United States have succeeded in making themselves
so prominent, not exactly in its councils but before the American
public, I ask you how it was that the late P. T. Barnum succeeded
in making himself so prominent before the American public ? And
I will answer, — simply by shrewd and unprincipled advertising.
But the Catholic Church, which is kind, considerate, patient,
long suffering and charitable toward all her children, can not be
hoodwinked for long.
Hence it is to-day that the American Catholic prelates, who kept
quiet while Ireland and Keane were blustering, are now and will
continue in control of the Catholic Church in the United States ;
and Ireland and Keane, et al, will have to fall into line or go to
Luther, Calvin and the father of lies.
In treating Catholic Liberalism thus freely I have also exposed
the falsehood implied in the quotation from the Northwest, viz.: —
that the opponents of Catholic Liberalism may easily be condemned
as reactionists towards nationalism or national politics. Indeed,
the case is falser than this, the truth being that while the opponents
of Catholic Liberalism — that is, the opponents made up of all na-
tionalities including the American — are old-fashioned loyal Cath-
OATHOLIG LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 187
olics, the representatives of Catholic Liberalism are really the un-
catholic national bigots in the controversy — only they happen to
belong to the last brood of American national pups with their eyes
as yet unopen.
I am fully aware of the gravity and severity of my words and if
necessary I will go further into detail hereafter in Justification of
the same.
The truth is that if they had their way, Ireland and Keane, and
Doyle of New York, and Zurcher of Buffalo, and Cashman and
Sheeran of Chicago, and Cleary of Minneapolis and a few other still
less important Catholic Liberals would turn the Catholic Church
in the United States into a sort of Methodist papal summer-school
camp-meeting, — with unkept and contemptible Puritan Sunday
Laws and Neal Dow Maine Laws as the new regulations of their
Liberal Catholic wigwam ; and all this in the place of those clear,
lucid, pure, rational, wise, charitable, humane, divine and eternal
principles of truth and liberty for which Christ died, upon which
the true Catholic Church was founded and on which it has flour-
ished and conquered the nations these last nineteen hundred years.
In a word it is Ireland and Keane, plus a lot of Protestant and
half-converted Protestant sympathizers, full of the crass ignorance
of raw American conceited cussedness, versus the old and new loyal
Catholic millions of all ages and nations of the world — and if Ire-
land wants to be the American Luther of the nineteenth century,
in G-od's name let him come out and say so.
I have no doubt that McKinley and Wanamaker, and the Storers,
and some of their slaves and friends would welcome the rebel, and
everybody knows that the Devil would be very well pleased.
That there have been and that there are now undeniable asser-
tions of nationalism in the Catholic Church in European countries
and in the United States is most unfortunately true.
It was to point out these tendencies and to plead against them
that I wrote the article on " Race Prejudice and Catholic Faith,"
in the Globe Review, last year ; and in treating this phase of my
subject, in this instance, I shall be just as candid with these unde-
sirable phases of nationalism as I have been with its worst phase,
which is, Catholic Liberalism ; — that is Catholic American Nation-
alism.
I am not at all sure but Mgr. Schroeder was unwise in taking* up
so severely the impassioned words that Bishop Keane uttered on
188 THE GLOBE.
the occasion of his final and farewell address at the Catholic Uni-
versity. Keane was naturally impetuous, and having been lifted
down, though very gently, from the stilts on which he had been
striding for a while, it was natural that he should kick his heels
as high as possible ; and, for one, I was inclined, as most English
speaking Catholics were inclined, to pity his impetuosity, to excuse
his lack of humility, and to pass in silence the final outbui*st of his
over-exaggerated self-esteem — ^knowing all the while and gladly ad-
mitting that at heart he was an earnest and a most lovable man.
But the Germans are not made that way. Moreover, the Germans
are to-day the profoundest and most exact theologians in the Cath-
olic Church, precisely as the French are its most accomplished
rhetoricians and the Italians its most subtile philosophers. More-
over, again, Schroeder had gone in and out with Keane at the
University ; doubtless had often enough been snubbed by him,
knowing, however, all the while that Keane was merely a light
weight, popular writer and speaker, and by no means as thorough
a scholar as Schroeder himself. Hence, when the time came for
the heavy German to get in his blow, it was such a " knock-out "
that the majestic Ireland, the blizzard of the Northwest, felt
called upon to come to the rescue. But Ireland had better have
kept still. No doubt he is a very earnest man, but he is not a
thinker. Much less is he an accomplished theologian, like
Schroeder ; and he may be as sure as that his name is Ireland, if
he has appealed the case to his Grace Martinelli, or if he should
appeal it to the Pope, he will be defeated, snowed under, simply
squelched and brought to terms. — Not, however, because Schroe-
der and Martinelli are foreigners ; but because they are exact theo-
logical thinkers and because Ireland is not, and, therefore has, time
and again, laid himself open to more than one charge of uncatholic
teaching and conduct.
In a word, again, it is not foreign nationalism but Catholic truth
and Catholic justice that are opposed to Ireland, Keane and Co.
As to nationalism in the Catholic Church in America, — that is,
in the United States, there are manifestations of it that are inev-
itable, excusable and justifiable, and others that are despicable,
petty and dangerous.
I have made it clear enough in previous articles that the Globe
has not a particle of sympathy for the foreign nationalism of any
European race or nation that would perpetuate its language, its
customs or its Dreiudiops in thfise TTnitp.d Stntpa.
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 189
The United States were settled in the main by English speaking
peoples. It is true that these same peoples routed the French speak-
ing settlers of Northeast New England in the most dastardly man-
ner. It is also true that, especially in New England, they did the
most despicable things to their fellow English speaking settlers that
were not of Puritan faith and bigotry ; and that, gradually, the
same process has been going on toward the primal settlements of
the French in Louisiana and Florida ; but all this, bad as it has
been in many aspects of the case, is in evidence that the dominating
sentiment in the United States is an English speaking sentiment, —
our nurseries, our schools, our churches, our newspapers, our courts
of law, our State and National legislatures ; our business, our com-
merce, our lying and stealing, our literature and our love-making are
all done in English, — ^that is, officially ; and when one considers
the statistics of the advance of the English language, as given in my
article on "Eace Prejudice and Catholic Faith,'' and remembers
how utterly it dominates this land, one is simply amused at the
petty, fatuous pipings of the Germans, the French, the Italians and
the Irish, as if any one of them or all of them combined could long
retard the absolute dominion of the English speech on this broad
continent. For there have been Irish Catholic national tendencies
here that were as uncatholic as anything the French or Germans
were ever charged with advocating.
By all means, swing your foreign brogue and accent and con-
struction of sentences as long as you cannot help it, and cursed be the
wit that makes sport of you ; but when you say that because Mil-
waukee, for instance, was settled by Germans therefore the German
speech should be perpetuated there, you are simply shooting Ni-
agara and are sure to get drowned under the Falls. If I recollect,
the Dutch-Germans settled New Amsterdam before it was called
New York ; but the fellow who would now claim that because of
this fact the language of the State of New York ought now to be
Dutch should be caught by one of Roosevelt's police or by one of
Fr. Doyle's Temperance patriots and sent to the Keeley cure or to
an insane asylum.
Milwaukee, to-day, is as truly an English-speaking city as Berlin
is a German-speaking city, and the Dutchman who can not size
up to this march of the English tongue had better take himself as
quietly as possible to the sylvan retreats of Rip Van Winkle or the
military garrisons of Billy Hohenzollern.
190 THB GLOBE.
The same is true precisely of my good friends, the French, and
the French Canadians, wherever they find themselves in little or
larger coteries in New England, in Illinois, in Louisiana or in any
other part of this land. They know and their tyrant enemies know
that I have the most devoted regard for all their early settlements
in this country, and many of them know how sincerely I love the
simplicity and sincerity and the culture of their leaders in those
sections of the country where they still cherish their mother tongue
and try to keep out the sunrise of English speech and literature.
But their task is a hopeless one. They must learn to speak English
or soon learn to be dumb. In my article on Eace Prejudice I named
certain impossible Irish dreams and condemned them.
As regards recent attempts to revive the ancient Gaelic, or Irish,
or Celtic speech in this country, or to do anything more with it
than to preserve its records and here and there educate an enthusi-
astic Irishman to learn the barbaric doggerel, you may as well try
to revive the ancient Druidic religion or to teach the " don't-yer-
know — I swaung " young ladies and gentlemen of Boston to make
love and sing Wagner in Choctaw. It simply can't be done. In
other words and in the immaculate cant of Boston, "yer cawn't
do it — yer know I "
In view of these intimations, though very briefly and very im-
perfectly stated, it must be clear to every intelligent Catholic that
all the children, bom in this country, of German, French, Italian
or other foreign Catholic parents, ought absolutely to be taught
their religion in the English language ; and for this all-sufficient
reason, if for no other — ^that they will have to learn all their other
lessons, all their conversation with their fellow-beings, all their com-
mercial dealings and all their American patriotism in English. It
is not a theory of preference, but a condition of existence that we
are facing, and any man is a fool who kicks against the goads. — Nor
should any German, Frenchman, Italian, or other foreign language
speaking immigrant, or the descendant of such, complain of this
position or of this inexorable condition of things. Nobody forced
these people to come here ; nobody forces them to stay here. It is
not as if they were conquered nationalities, as under the old Roman
Empire of the Caesars, or, like the Poles under the modem heel of
the Czar of Russia, or even like the conquered provinces of Alsace
and Lorraine.
Nothing in all modem history has ever caused my blood to boil
CATHOLIC LIBERALISM AND NATIONALITY. 191
with such indignation as the forcing of the Russian language upon
the more cultured but less powerful and conquered kingdoms of Po-
land. In the case of the forcing of the German language upon the
conquered provinces of Alsace and Lorraine there was ample excuse
in the fact that only a few hundred years earlier these provinces
were German and in the last transfer it was only as if a rejuvenated
grand-parent had resolved to teach his great-grandchildren the an-
cient language of their forgotten grandmothers.
But none of these cases are analogous to our Anglo-American sit-
uation. The foreign language speaking peoples of Europe came
here voluntarily ; they elect to stay here voluntarily. No force is
used to bring them or to keep them here.
When they come here they find a great and growing nation en-
tirely under the control of English speaking people. Very soon they
set to work to study and pick up enough English to ask for bread,
and to work for bread, and pay for bread, through the vehicle of
wages, in money coined and stamped with the English language : —
and the weak and foolish pretense that, in spite of these facts, they
should go on generation after generation learning their catechism
and saying their prayers and hearing sermons in German, French,
Italian or what not, is the pretension of senseless imbecility.
Let me not be misunderstood. I take precisely the same ground
that Leo XIII. has taken — that priests of their own language, and
religious service in their own language should be provided for the
actual first generation of emigrants and that this should continue
throughout their lives ; but at the same time, for their own sakes,
for " the sake of their souls," for the sake of their position in society,
and for the sake of their influence on our modem world of Catholic
thought, the children of all these foreign speaking peoples of all
nations, should be taught, religiously as otherwise, primarily* in the
English tongue, and I here beg to assure my German, French and
Italian friends that it will come to this, whether they will it so or no.
That many of them have persisted in the opposite custom I am well
aware of, and their persistence I consider as uncatholic as it is un-
wise.
We can not resist the tides of the times.
In this way I have covered the ground that at the outset I meant
to cover in a somewhat different way.
In a word I have combined the phases and rights of foreign na-
tionalism in America that are reasonable and placed them in juxta-
■nrkoi+irkTi ii7-i+V« +Vi/-ka/i +Viq+ q-tq ii-nT/iiQork-nol-kl/i
192 THE GLOBE.
In my judgment the complaints made by the Germans to the
Pope a few years ago to the effect that their rights in this country
were being denied them by an over-assertive Irish Americanism
were justifiable and inevitable. In my judgment more recent com-
plaints on the part of our French Canadian residents in America
were also justifiable and inevitable, — though perhaps exaggerated,
— and that the Pope and the powers that be have taken this view
of the case is now known to all men, except Ireland, Keane and Co.
To my mind, again, the organized Ireland and Keane opposition
to the German complainants named was as unchristian, uncatholic,
unmanly and unfair in spirit and in action as it was possible for
great men to be unchristian and unfair ; and it is because of these
convictions and not because I have any sympathy with the advance-
ment of foreignism in this land that I have taken my stand in favor
of the oppressed as against their unjust oppressors and calumniators.
It would be infinitely more to my tastes and to my interests to
sail with the popular American Liberal Catholic winds. But I hate
injustice as the very core of hell, and I hate rebellion against all
true authority as I hate the devil himself — he being, as I understand
it, the chief rebel and liberalist of the universe.
Having lived and visited quite as much among German and
French Catholics as among Irish and American Catholics, while
making my studies of this subject during the last five years, I could,
were it worth while, give literally thousands of personal incidents
and observations, — naming prominent priests and scholars and the
children and children's children of well known Catholic laymen in
the East and in the West, — to justify the grounds I have taken ;
but I am not writing newspaper gush or sensational garbage. I
only mention names that have been freely before the public and
I defy any of these to gainsay my teachings.
In this article I have not even named the great, spiritual and
moral argument that I made prominent in my article of last year,
already referred to. But Catholics of all nations must face and
study it far more carefully than they ever yet have done.
Absolutely, — in Christ Jesus there is no national prejudice, but
perfect fairness, perfect Cosmopolitanism, perfect charity ; and the
Catholic prelate, or what not, — ^Irish, German, or what not, — who
has not risen to this first principle of Christian faith had better
follow Keane to Rome and get the Pope himself to teach him.
William Henry Thoene.
EEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 193
YOUR OUTWARD BEAUTY.
Their noon once past your charms will fade away :
The rounded cheek -^vill lose its crimson hue,
The clear full eye reflect a duller hlue,
The perfect form survive but one brief day.
The hair's abundant gold turn silver-gray —
Perchance its fragile threads be thin and few —
As laughing leaves, in spring luxuriant, new.
Are of chill autumn's breath the promised prey.
Why seek to coax your outward beauty on
Past its fair prime ? It surely served you well
In pain and pleasure, quietness and stir :
Cared old Tithonus, when his youth was gone.
If Eos changed his wrinkled, withered shell
Into a witless, chirping grasshopper ?
Gardiner, Me. A. T. Schuman.
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY.
Do the writings of Heathen authors, containing an account of
the Christian Eeligion, bear testimony, as the advocates for Chris-
tianity assert, to prove those things true reported of Christ in the
New Testament ? Christian advocates, undoubtedly, argue so.
But are their arguments supported by facts and reasons, sufficiently
weighty to be considered conclusive ? A thorough and impartial
investigation, may prove of greater interest and importance, than
many, at present, are aware of.
The exact weight that Christians, in general, attribute to this
supposed Heathen testimony may be gathered, in the main, from
the following statement penned by a Christian writer : —
" Not less striking and decisive," says our author, " is the testi-
mony of both Koman historians and Jewish writers to the truth
of the principal facts detailed in the New Testament ; such as
Herod's murder of the infants under two years old, at Bethlehem ;
vol.. VTT 1.<l
194 THE GLOBE.
many particulars respecting John and Herod ; the life and char-
acter of Our Lord ; His crucifixion under Pontius Pilate ; and the
earthquake and miraculous darkness that attended it ; and many
other matters of minor importance related in these writings. Nay,
even many of the miracles which Jesus himself wrought, par tic u-
lai-ly in curing the blind and lame, and casting out devils, are, as
to matter of fact, expressly owned and admitted by Jewish writers ;
and by several of the earliest and most implacable enemies of Chris-
tianity ; for, though they ascribed these miracles to magic, or the
assistance of evil spirits, yet they allowed that the miracles them-
selves were actually wrought."
Let us now examine, carefully, the principal arguments advanced
by Christian writers in support of this Heathen testimony or evi-
dence which. Christians say, proves or attests the truth " of the
principal facts detailed in the New Testament." First, then, Chris-
tians frequently argue (unintentionally, if you like, but nevertheless
misleadingly) in support of many of the particular acts and miracles,
reported of Christ, by continually referring the doubting mind to
books written by eminent Christians in defence of their religion,
in which much of the Heathen evidence or testimony referred to,
as authority for statements made, is now conceded (though by no
means generally known) to be entirely spurious. Such works are
those of the Christian writers. Dr. Gregory Sharpe, Grotius, Butler,
Joseph Addison, and many others. In all these books are quoted
many spurious passages which, while they are not liable to mislead
the informed, are, nevertheless, still a cause of filling the minds of
many (not so informed) with erroneous ideas of things based upon
no authority ; and when the candid and inquiring mind (having but
a limited time to devote to the matter) is pointed out such books
for study, when he has read them he is not apt to be impressed very
favorably with the Christian Religion ; for having discovered by
chance (as the majority do) that much of the Heathen testimony ad-
vanced is spurious (but at one time was generally accepted to be
authentic) he becomes, at the least, suspicious of all other Heathen
testimony and, finally, gives over all faith in Christianity, what-
soever. But let us now proceed to quote several such passages, of
a spurious nature, from the works of the Christian writers just men-
tioned.
Our first quotation shall be from Dr. Gregory Sharpens " Defence
of the Christian Religion," a work frequently read by Christians.
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 195
We give one of many passages, quoted by Dr. Sharpe, from " The
Toledoth Jeshu." It is as follows : " And Jesus said, bring hither
to me a leper, and I will heal him, and they brought him a leper,
and he put his hand upon him, and pronounced the great name, and
the man was cured, and he became again like the flesh of a child,"
This passage and others are brought forward by Dr. Sharpe in wit-
ness of particular miracles said to be done by Christ. It is scarcely
necessary to inform any one, who has investigated the matter (see
" Chambers's Encyclopedia," edition, 1892), that " The Toledoth
Jeshu," once universally accepted by Christians as Canonical, is now
conceded, on all hands, to be apocryphal. But it is necessary to
state that all Heathen testimony in support of particular miracles
related of Christ is, with these spurious writings, overthrown. The
evidence respecting particular miracles related of Christ and said
to be contained in the Talmud, which is the only remaining Heathen
work in which a reference to such particular miracles is made, we
shall speak of, later, in this paper.
Again, in Chap. VII. of his "Analogy," Butler, in speaking
against unbelievers, remarks : " For though they (unbelievers) may
say, that the historical evidence of miracles wrought in attestation of
Christianity, is not sufficient to convince them, that such miracles
were really wrought ; they cannot deny, that there is such historical
evidence, it heing a known matter of fact that there is." This passage,
without doubt, refers to such historical evidence as " The Toledoth
Jeshu," the Talmud, " Celsus," etc.; for when Butler wrote his " An-
alogy " such authorities were generally quoted and received by Chris-
tians as genuine. We have already stated, however, that " The Tole-
doth Jeshu," in which a great deal of the historical evidence rested,
is now conceded to be spurious, and, thus, upsets much of the sup-
posed Heathen testimony for such miracles. The rest of this
Heathen testimony advanced in support of the miracles reported of
Christ, we shall show, in its proper place, carries with it, absolutely,
no weight.
Still again, Grotius, in his " Truth of the Christian Religion "
(Book II., Sec. 2), in advancing testimony for certain supposed acts
of Christ, says : " A long time after, the acts of Pilate were extant,
to which the Christians sometimes appealed." The learned Le
Clerc remarks on this passage that " it were better to have omitted
this argument, because some imprudent Christians might appeal
to some spurious acts ; for it does not appear there were any genuine
196 THE GLOBE.
ones." With respect to these acts of Pilate, to which Christians have
often appealed (and a reference to which is found in other Chris-
tian works besides Grotius) Joseph Addison, in his "Evidences of
the Christian Eeligion " (Sec. I., para. 7), says : " As for the spurious
acts of Pilate, now extant, we know the occasion and time of their
writing ; and, had there not been a true and authentic record of this
nature, they would never have been forged." Mr. Addison's last
argument, to say the least, is certainly not very deep ; for if there
ever had existed any record of these acts of Pilate (which we dis-
prove in a succeeding argument), why should any forgery have been
necessary at all ? But this matter, as just remarked, will presently
be carefully examined.
Lastly, the Eev. Charles Semisch, jn his life of Justin Martyr,
pens us a very clear account of many spurious works, at one time
quoted as genuine, and attributed to the zealous pen of this eminent
Christian writer. While Justin is a Christian, we shall see further
on, that the knowledge that many of his writings (for a long timp
quoted as genuine) are now known to be spurious, will carry its full
weight in elucidating a knotty matter. The following extract is
from Book II., Sec. 2 of Semisch's work : " As the result of the
investigation heretofore carried on, we conclude that the two apol-
ogies, the dialogue with Typho, the exhortations to the Greeks,
and the fragments on the resurrection must be regarded as the un-
questionable productions of Justin ; on the other hand, all the
other writings which still pass under the writer's name must be con-
sidered spurious." We see, therefore, that we have good reasons
to examine carefully the remaining Heathen testimony advanced
in support of the Christian Eeligion.
Secondly, Christians argue that since many natural or historical
facts, related in the New Testament are, undoubtedly, proved to
be true by the same accounts found in the writings of Heathen
authors that, therefore, the acts and miracles reported of Christ,
in the New Testament, are likewise proved to be true. The advo-
cates for Christianity here drop into the fallacy known to logicians
as the fallacy of resemblance and forget to consider whether there
really exists any true resemblance or analogy between the things re-
lated. With regard to those natural or historical things (not relat-
ing to Christ) mentioned in the New Testament ; such as, the mur-
der of the infants by Herod, the mention made of Pontius Pilate,
and many other events, it is not to be denied that they happened.
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. H>7
For (1) all these things are mentioned in the writings of Heathen
authors, as Celsns and Macrobius (2) They are facts that might
have been obtained without any knowledge of Christ whatsoever
and (3) they are of such a nature as never to have been doubted
by any rational person.
With respect, however, to those acts reported of Christ in the
New Testament, the case is widely different. For the sake of ar-
gument we grant (though, in the last part of this paper, it will be
seen that we by no means state this to be true) that the birth, life,
and death of Christ, as of some other man like Pilate is attested to
by Heathen writers. Does this, then, as Christians argue, prove true
the wonders and miracles reported of Christ ? No, and never could.
For there exists not the slightest resemblance or analogy (and upon
such resemblance and analogy could the Christian argument, alone,
carry any weight) between the ordinary historical facts which we
have granted are admitted, on all hands, and those wonders and
miracles, reported to have been performed by Christ. With respect
to those historical facts (not the acts and miracles reported of
Christ) that we grant to be admitted both by Heathen as well as by
Christian writers, they are all ordinary or natural facts, similar to
facts that have happened (without being considered strange) a thou-
sand times within the experience of man, and, besides, have never
been doubted by any one. With respect to the wonders and miracles
reported of Christ in the New Testament, they are unnatural and
superhuman, not within the experience of any but a few of the first
Christian writers (for we shall see that no Heathen writer witnessed
these things), who tell us that they saw them done, and, further-
more, they are still and always have been doubted, ever since they
were made publicly known, by persons as numerous as the advocates
for Christianity. Hence we see that there is no real resemblance
or analogy, between the wonders and miracles reported of Christ,
in the New Testament, and the historical facts found in these books
and admitted true by Heathen writers. Consequently, the Chris-
tian argument that since many historical facts mentioned in the
New Testament are proven true, therefore the wonders and miracles
reported of Christ are likewise proven true, falls to the ground.
For this argument by analogy, at best weak, could only bear any
weight by first establishing a resemblance or analogy to exist between
these historical facts and the wonders or miracles related of Christ.
Christians will here object that their arguments hold good, not
198 TEE GLOBE.
on account of any supposed resemblance, thought to exist, between
the facts related in the New Testament ; but by reason of the truth-
ful reports of so many facts. This is a fallacy, it may be observed,
into which more than one able writer has unconsciously slid. Is
it not strange (remark som€ Christians, slyly or illogically, as you
please) that so many things, related in the New Testament, are
known to be absolutely true ? and how, then can it be doubted, for
a moment, that the rest of the things reported of Christ, in the New
Testament, axe not, also, proven true ? Oh, the blindness of man.
Who will deny that, in man, there is not much that is true ? Bu^
who is the man that dares state to his conscience that in him there
is nothing false, credulous, unprejudiced, or superstitious ? The
writers of the New Testament were but men ; and we are not bound
to take any of their statements on faith, respecting the things under
consideration. But these objections aside, we reply, to the objec-
tions advanced, that if every statement made in the New Testament,
concerning the acts of Christ, was proved a fact (which is certainly
not the case) and only one solitary statement, not yet proven true,
existed, — even this preponderating testimony in favor of the verac-
ity of the writers of the New Testament, while it might convince
many, could never prove this one solitary statement to be true unless
it could be first established that a resemblance or analogy existed
between the facts related and the one solitary statement. And as
the number of these unproven statements increased (and in the New
Testament they preponderate greatly over the facts admitted) so,
in proportion, would increase the difficulty to prove them true by
the argument now advanced by Christians. To make clear our
statement to all, we quote a case exactly parallel. In Livy's " His-
tory of Eome," the ma.jority of the events therein related, perhaps
by three-fourths or more, are, undoubtedly, true and are attested
to by many other Heathen writers. But what rational man would
assert, therefore, that the following and similar statements, to be
found in Livy, are thus proven true : " Several deceptions of the
ears and eyes," says Livy (Lib. XXIV., Cap. 44) in speaking of cer-
tain prodigies, " were credited as facts ; that the figures of ships
of war had appeared in the river at Tarracinia, where no ships were ;
that in the temple of Jupiter, at Vicilinum, in the district of
Compsa, a clashing of arms was heard ; and that the river at Ami-
temum flowed in streams of blood."
It will now be urged by Christians that the things related of
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 199
Christ in the New Testament are entirely different from these
absurd statements to be found scattered throughout Livy. In many
cases, as regards the nature of the wonders, we grant this to be true.
But this does not change the resemblance or analogy, between the
miraculous statements reported by Livy and the miraculous state-
ments reported of Christ by the writers of the New Testament.
The statements of both are made by men, are without the ordinary
run of things, and are finally attributed to a divine or superhuman
agency, wherein, alone, an analogy need exist. But, furthermore,
what great difference exists between the miracles stated by Livy and
the miraculous statements to be found in Chapter XXVII. of St.
Matthew, verses 45 and 50 to 54 {q.v.) ? Hence it is very evident
that, so far forth as the testimony of Heathen writers is concerned,
it does not and cannot prove true the wonders and miracles reported
of Christ simply because mliny facts related by these Heathen au-
thors coincide with many facts related hy the writers of the New
Testament.
Thirdly, one of the strongest arguments ever brought by Chris-
tians against anti-Christians to show that Heathen writers testify or
prove true those things reported of Christ, is the pointing to certain
ancient records called " The Acta Pilati,'' or " The Acts of Pilate."
We have seen already that spurious writings purporting to be these
very records, were forged, and, during Addison's time, exposed.
We shall now show that these original documents, if there be any
conclusive proof that such ever existed at all, prove about as much
as the spurious writings just mentioned.
The only authorities extant supporting the existence of these acts
of Pilate supposed by Christian advocates (see " Infidelity : Its
Cause and Cure,'' by the Rev. D. Nelson) to recount the life, mir-
acles, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, is, first, the
mention made of them by Justin Martyr in one of his Apologies
to the Romans. The second mention made of them is supposed to
be by Tertullian who wrote about fifty years after Justin. Eusebius
is the last authority that Christians have received as genuine. It
may be observed here, as well as elsewhere that all the writers who
mention these acts of Pilate are Christians, and that there is not
extant the writings of one Heathen author in which even the men-
tion of them is to be found. As regards the authority of Eusebius,
Joseph Addison, in his treatise on the " Evidences of Christianity "
(Sec. I., para. 7), speaking of the " Acta Pilati," says : " Eusebius
200 THE GLOBE.
mentions the same ancient record ; but, as it was not extant in his
time, I shall not insist upon his authority at this point." Now, then
if it can be shown that these acts of Pilate did not exist during the
time when Justin lived (and consequently they could not have ex-
isted when Tertullian wrote), we have certainly the strongest argu-
ment for rejecting any evidence that these records are supposed to
contain respecting those things reported of Christ.
Justin Martyr who lived and wrote about 140 a.d., refers to these
acts of Pilate, in Chapter XL VIII. of his first Apology addressed
to the Eoman Emperor Antoninus, a few others, and the Roman
Senate, in the following single sentence : " And that he did those
things you can learn from the acts of Pontius Pilate." It is to be ob-
served here, that this supposed reference of Justin to the " Acta
Pilati," is contained in one short sentence of fifteen words inserted
in the middle of Cap. XL VIII. of his first apology to the Romans,
a lengthy appeal of sixty-eight chapters. It is to be observed, also,
that Justin refers to these acts of Pilate to support a particular
report (quoted by Justin) of certain miracles said to have been per-
formed by Christ. A hasty reader might easily be led to believe
that the first half of the chapter containing this sentence (q.v.) con-
tained a direct quotation from the acts referred to. A more careful
reperusal of the chapter would soon convince him of his error. No-
where, either in this apology or in any other of his writings, does
Justin quote the shortest passage from these documents. The po-
sition of the sentence, in the middle of the chapter, is proof that
the acts referred to are advanced, only, in support of the things
quoted by Justin in the first half of this chapter. If, as Christians
maintain, on no grounds, these acts referred to the life, crucifixion,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, it cannot be supposed that
so able a writer as Justin (versed in the rhetoric of the Romans)
would place such a weighty argument in so obscure a position, when
by placing it in the last chapter of his apology, he would, at least,
insure against its being overlooked by his readers. The fact is, that
if such a document ever existed, there is every reason to believe that
Pilate, if he mentioned those things relate of Christ at all, de-
nounced them as frauds as, we shall see, other Heathen writers have
done. Pilate, it must not be forgotten, was Procurator of Judea
under the Romans. He knew the Romans hated the Jews and
Christians as well as their religions. It is not likely, therefore, that
he would injure himself in the eyes of his Roman masters by any
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHKISTIANITT. 201
expression of opinion in favor of a man whom, simply to please
the Jews, he did not hesitate, as Christians themselves tell us, to
give over to them to be crucified. Besides, as before observed, no
quotation, whatsoever, from this document, has been made by
Justin. It is but just to state that, since Justin is supposed to refer
to this document, he either saw or read it himself or else obtained
his knowledge of it from others who had seen it. If he saw and
read it himself, seeing the great importance of such testimony, why
has he not quoted directly from it, or given the world the whole, or
at least, a part of it as he has done with his apologies and other
numerous writings ? If he had obtained his information, indirectly,
from others who saw the document he would have been all the more
careful to quote the particulars they must have related to him as
being contained in these records. Hence whichever way we turn
the matter looks doubtful and suspicious.
The Eev. David Nelson, in a work already referred to, says :
" Would Justin, writing to the emperor and senate, asking for his
life, and the lives of brethren, and for kindness, favor, and tolera-
tion to all the church, refer them to papers which they did not
possess, or to senatorial documents that did not exist ? " Why
not ? What had Justin to lose by such a reference true or false ?
The Eev. D. Nelson takes too much upon faith and looks upon but
one side of the picture ; he forgets to give us all the facts. Did
Justin hold any position or office under the Romans ? No ; for at
the time he wrote his apology, he was a teacher and a Christian and
as such heartily despised by the Romans. Was he ensconced in a
bed of roses, preaching from a pulpit with a salary of $20,000 per
annum ? He was now in the midst of Christians (himself sorely
tried) who were being daily butchered, burned, and martyred be-
fore-his very eyes by a set of bloodthirsty Roman savages. The
gre^'t persecution of Antoninus was now at its height. Justin wrote
his first apology, as he tells us, in his opening address {q.v.), to ask
mercy of the Roman emperor for himself, as well as for the rest of
the persecuted Christians, as he says in his closing words " being
one of them." What then had he to lose, if the Roman emperor
did not grant him favor ? Could he or the persecuted Christians
be much worse treated than they were already ? Besides, the Ro-
man emperor, if he ever examined Justin's apology at all, would not
be likely to search minutely for particular errors when he and all
Romans, as we shall see in the course of this paper, already believed
202 THE OLOBE.
the Christian Eeligion to be based upon fraud and superstition. If
then Justin in his address (which is unquestionably a masterly piece
of art) had much in it to recommend both the persecuted Christians
and himself, in the eyes of the emperor, he had certainly much to
gain in presenting it. But as he had absolutely nothing to lose
(and this is the point) the argument or statement of the Kev. Nelson
is, at best, not very conclusive.
Having now viewed this matter as it stands, let us proceed to
view it in another light. Tacitus in his " Annals " (Lib. XV., Cap.
41), in speaking of the great burning of Eome attributed, by many,
to the blood-stained hands of the Emperor Nero, says : " The num-
ber of houses, temples, and insulated mansions, destroyed by the
fire cannot be ascertained. But the most venerable monuments of
antiquity, which the worship of ages had rendered sacred, were laid
in ruins ; amongst these were the temple dedicated to the moon by
Servius TuUius ; the fane and the great altar consecrated by Evan-
der, the Arcadian, to Hercules, his visitor and his guest ; the chapel
of Jupitor Stator, built by Komulus ; the palace of Numa, and the
temple of Vesta with the tutelar gods of Rome. With these were con-
sumed the trophies of so many victories, the inimitable works of the
Grecian artists, with the precious monuments of literature and an-
cient genius, all at present remembered by men advanced in years,
but irrecoverably lost."
Here, then, we have the most conclusive proof as to what became
of the " Acta Pilati." Undoubtedly, if they ever existed at all they
were destroyed together with other Koman documents, as Tacitus
relates to us, in the great fire at Eome which occurred in the reign
of the Emperor Nero, about a.d. 64.
If any record, whatsoever, was sent to Rome by Pilate, it was sent
there shortly after the death of Christ, a.d. 33 ; since the custom
was for Roman Governors to despatch such accounts immediately
after the events they recorded, happened. An instance may be
given in Pliny's letter, concerning Christians, to the Emperor
Trajan (q.v.). These acts of Pilate, as is conceded by Christians,
being documents or registers of a pubhc nature would, without
doubt, be placed among the other public records at Rome. Now
the building in which all such public records and documents were
kept, every student of classical literature knows, was the temple
of Saturn. Hence in the Temple of Saturn were these acts of Pilate
during the great burning of Rome, a.d, 64. For if it be conceded
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 203
that such docTiments were sent to Eome by Pilate at all (and cer-
tainly, if they were not sent to Rome, there is absolutely no proof
that they ever existed, since neither Jews nor Christians possess
them) then it must be admitted (seeing these records to be public
ones) that they were placed where all such public records were placed.
This argument is all the more conclusive since there is absolutely
no proof that they were placed elsewhere ; and if it could be proved
that they were placed elsewhere, then there would be a very strong
argument to show that they were not public, but private, records ;
and consequently could not be expected to carry the weight attrib-
uted to them.
Tacitus, in the passage we have just quoted, tells us that, in the
burning of Rome, " all the precious monuments of literature and
genius " were destroyed. He tells us, in the same passage, that the
temple of Vesta (see map of ancient Rome), situated on the west
side of the Palatine Hill to the south of the Forum, was also burned.
The Forum, separated from the temple of Vesta by about 100 feet,
lay at the foot of, and was surrounded by, three hills ; viz., the Pal-
atine, the Esquiline, and the Capitoline. North of the Forum ran
the Via Sacra ; south-west of the Forum rose up, in a majestic pile,
the celebrated temple of Saturn separated from the temple of Vesta
by about 600 feet. At the foot of Satum^s temple lay the famous
Clivus Capitolinus into which ran the Via Sacra and which separ-
ated, by about 100 feet, the temple of Saturn from the Forum. Thus
the Forum lay in between, and practically connected, the temples
of Saturn and Vesta. When we have read the following thrilling
description by Tacitus of the fury with which the great fire at Rome
raged, it will be readily seen that it does not require a logician to
prove that the temple of Saturn was destroyed by fire. This be-
comes all the more conclusive when we consider that the temple of
Saturn was raised but slightly above the level sjpace in which lay,
so proudly, the grand old Forum, that the temple of Saturn was
separated from the temple of Vesta (which Tacitus tells us was
burned) by about 600 feet, or only 200 yards, and that the two
temples mentioned were practically connected by the Forum and
other smaller out-buildings. " The flame broke out," says the great
annalist (Lib. XV., Cap. 38), "in that part of the circus which
adjoins, on one side, to mount Palatine, and, on the other, to mount
Coelius. It caught a number of shops stored with combustible
goods, and, gathering force from the winds, spread with rapidity
204: THE GLOBE.
from one end of the circus to the other. Neither the thick walls
of houses, nor the enclosures of temples, nor any other building,
could check the rapid progress of the flames. A dreadful conflagra-
»tion followed. The level parts of the city were destroyed. The
tire communicated to the higher buildings, and, again laying hold
of the inferior places, spread with a degree of velocity that nothing
could resist. The form of the streets, long and narrow, with fre-
quent windings, and no regular opening, according to the plan of
ancient Eome, contributed to increase the mischief." It will be
here noted that the Forum lay in the level part (all of which parts
Tacitus tells us were destroyed) between the Palatine and Capit-
oline Hills. The temples of Vesta and Saturn, it will also be noted,
rose up from the two opposite and extreme points of this level part,
the former on the side of Mount Palatine, the latter on the side of
Mount Capitoline. The fire, as Tacitus has just told us, " com-
municated to the higher buildings."
" On the sixth day," continues the historian (Lib. XV., Cap. 40),
" the fire was subdued at the foot of Mount Esquiline." At the
end of this same chapter, the historian sums up, in the following
words the inimitable loss that Rome sustained by this dreadful con-
flagration : " Of the fourteen quarters, into which Rome was di-
vided, four only were left entire, three were reduced to ashes, and
the remaining seven presented nothing better than a heap of shat-
tered houses, half in ruins." It is very evident that the quarter
where the Forum lay was not one of the four quarters that escaped
the fire ; for Tacitus tells us that the fire broke out here or very
near it, that the temple of Vesta (which lay in this quarter) was
burned, that all level sections (in one of which was the Forum and
the Temple of Saturn) were burned, and that the fire was extin-
guished near this quarter at the foot of Mount Esquiline, after it
had been burning there for six entire days and nights. There can
be little doubt in the minds of any, therefore, especially as there is
no proof to the contrary, that among the temples destroyed was the
venerable temple of Saturn. And this supposition is all the more
conclusive when we consider what Tacitus tells us, that " the most
venerable monuments of antiquity were laid in ruins."
In view, then, of these facts and others already touched upon, —
that Justin refers to these records in but one short sentence of fif-
teen words smothered in the middle of a lengthy apology of sixty-
eight chapters, that not the shortest quotation, seeing the great im-
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHBISTIANITT, 205
portance it would carry, is made by Justin from these acts, that
he had nothing to lose by referring to them even if he knew they
never existed, that many works, long thought to be from his pen,
are now known to be spurious, that the sentence, containing a ref-
erence to the "Acta Pilati," is placed in exactly such a position
where an interpolation would be placed, and that documents were
actually forged and exposed, purporting to be these acts of Pilate, —
all go to prove that no such records, if they ever existed at all, were
extant during the lifetime of Justin Martyr. From what has been
said, there is but one of two conclusions to be drawn ; viz., (1) that
Justin either referred to these records without authority, or (2) that
the sentence found in his apology, referring to the acts of Pilate,
is an interpolation. Which conclusion is the correct one (and one
of them must be) we leave for the reader to decide for himself.
Having now, we think, given our reader much matter for deep
cogitation, let us forthwith proceed to lay down a few arguments
in support of our statement that Heathen writers do not and can not
testify or prove true those things reported of Christ in the New
Testament.
The statement made by the eight original writers of the New
Testament to the effect that they and many others, to whom they
appeal, were actually eye-witnesses of the things which they report
of Christ, is the main foundation that has supported the whole
structure of the Christian Eeligion since its rise and spread in the
world. With regard to those witnesses to whom the writers of the
New Testament appeal as having seen the acts and miracles re-
ported of Christ, they are long since dead and gone, and have left
us no writings or testimony to the effect that they ever saw Christ
or the miracles performed by him. This reduces the number of
witnesses who actually assert that they saw the things reported
of Christ to not more than eight persons whose writings still claim
to bear testimony to the things that they report. Now prove (and
no one, it must be admitted, either Heathen, Jew, Christian, or
Anti- Christian, has yet done so conclusively) that these writers of
the New Testament had never seen the things that they assert they
bear witness to, and Christianity, would be, instantly, a fiction of
the past. For no truth-seeking and logical mind. Christian or no
Christian, would believe the things reported of Christ in the New
Testament unless he knew, or felt he knew, that those who report
these things and laid down their lives to uphold them, had actually
206 THE GLOBE.
seen them. On the other hand prove (and it cannot be denied, even
by Anti-Christs, that Christians have good reasons for their belief)
that these things reported of Christ have actually occurred before
eye-witnesses and (knowing all things to be possible with God) we
have the strongest evidence of their reality.
Turning, now, to Heathen testimony and holding it entirely dis-
tinct and separate from Christian testimony, what fact now appears
to us in the most striking light ? The fact that there is not extant
one record, or writing, from the pen of any Heathen writer, who
lived and wrote during the lifetime of Christ, giving us an account
of the Christian Religion, whatsoever. Only one such record has
been reported as coming down to us ; viz., the acts of Pontius
Pilate. This we have already proven must be discarded as carrying
with it, absolutely, no weight.
But further, we know positively, that every Heathen writer
(whether Jew, Greek or Roman) who has recorded in his writings,
now extant, any account of Christians and their Religion at all,
wrote not only after the death of Christ, but after the Gospels (re-
cording the acts of Christ) and most of the other books of the New
Testament, were written. Lardner in that complete and well mer-
ited work (q.v.) entitled : " Heathen Testimony " (which attests to
what lengths a great mind will push even when acting upon error)
assigns the following dates to the writing of the various books of
the New Testament : The Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St.
Luke, he tells us in his table, were written about a.d. G4. The Gos-
pel of St. John about a.d. 68. The acts of the Apostles were written
about A.D. 64 ; and the remaining books of the New Testament not
earlier than a.d. 52.
Josephus, one of the earliest of the Heathen writers who give
us any account of Christ, published his history about 93 a.d. accord-
ing to Lardner's own account. Celsus wrote after a.d. 150 ; Ma-
crobius about 400 a.d.; Suetonius a.d. 110 ; Pliny, the younger,
a.d. 106 ; Tacitus a.d. 100 ; Emperor Julian a.d. 361 ; and the
first collection of the Jewish traditions, supposed to contain gen-
uine accounts of Christ, by Rabbi Jehuda, a.d. 180, or according to
some writers much later. For further dates (all later than the
earliest dates here given) respecting Heathen authors, who mention
Christianity in their writings, consult the elaborate tables to be
found in Lardner's book. Hence we see, at a glance, that the earli-
est Heathen writers, who give us any account of Christianity, wrote
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 207
about A.D. 90 or nearly 67 years after the death of Christ and 26
years after the writings of the books of the New Testament, espe-
cially the Gospels, containing the original account of the acts and
miracles of Christ.
Now since none of these Heathen writers were born till after the
death of Christ (Josephus born a.d. 37 being nearest to this era)
and did not publish their writings till 57 years after the death of
Christ, it takes but the bare mention of it to prove, beyond any
possible doubt, that they were not eye-witnesses to those things re-
ported of Christ in the New Testament. The accounts these
Heathen writers give us then, of the things reported of Christ must
have been obtained from sources or authority, other than their
own personal observation. So far, then, as the testimony of these
Heathen writers is considered distinct and not resting upon any
other authority but their own words, it could never even if they
stated so (which they do not), prove true those things reported of
Christ ; since none of these Heathen writers ever witnessed any
of the things that are thus reported. The question naturally arises,
then, what exact weight does the testimony of these Heathen writers
carry in support of those things reported of Christ ? The correct
answer to this question depends, clearly, upon the sources or author-
ities from which these Heathen writers obtained their accounts.
The only possible sources or authorities from which Heathen
writers could obtain the accounts they give us of the things re-
ported of Christ are the following : 1. From the original writings
of the New Testament or from copies of the same ; 2. From Chris-
tians who had read these writings ; 3. From Christians who claimed
to be eye-witnesses of the things reported of Christ ; 4. From the
traditions of the Christians ; 5. From the traditions of the Jews.
The traditions of the Jews being Heathen testimony will be fully
examined later, when it will be shown that if Greek and Roman
writers obtained their accounts of the Christian Religion from this
source, their accounts could carry absolutely no weight with them.
It must here be well borne in mind that we are now speaking
sodely of the things reported of Christ in the New Testament ; and
upon the truth of which things rests the entire structure of the
Christian Religion. This is all the more necessary to bear dis-
tinctly in mind ; as Christians frequently argue that certain
Heathen writers, as Pliny, attest to certain rites and ceremonies
performed during the time when these Heathen writers wrote which
TEE GLOBE.
rites and ceremonies agree with the account given of those set
forth in the New Testament. Hence Christians argue that every-
thing stated in the New Testament must be true, whereas the
only thing proved is that certain rites and ceremonies are attested
to. This fallacy we have already exposed in showing that the
proof of things human or natural can never be a good proof of
the truth of things superhuman or unnatural. Further, Pliny,
as well as every other Heathen writer, as we have already shown,
wrote his account of Christians 26 years after the writing of the
books of the Gospels, and, at a time, when the Gospels, as Chris-
tians affirm, were preached in almost every quarter of the then
known world. Is it remarkable, then, that Heathen writers' ac-
counts of the rites and ceremonies of the Christians should agree
with the same accounts in the Gospels when these Heathen writers,
as Pliny, obtained their accounts from Christians, as PHny tells us
in his letter, who practised the rites and ceremonies set forth to
them in the New Testament ?
But to return to our main argument. If Heathen writers who
speak of Christianity, obtained their accounts from the original
writings of the New Testament, or from copies of these writings,
or from Christians who have said (and here mark that none but
professed Christians do say this) that they had been eye-witnesses
to these things, or from the traditions of Christians from various
parts of Europe, the testimony of these Heathen writers is reducible
to the testimony or authority of Christians themselves. Any writer,
then, who employs Heathen testimony to prove the truth of those
things reported of Christ would fall into that fallacy known to
logicians as a " pro causa non causa " ; or in the more familiar
language of the untechnical, " the undue assumption of a premise."
The premise unduly assumed is clearly, the Heathen testimony of
which we have just spoken. The premise passed over by Christians,
as has been shown already, but upon which rests the real authority
or weight of all Heathen testimony (the traditions of the Jews ex-
cepted and of which we shall speak later) concerning those things
reported of Christ, is the testimony or authority of Christians them-
selves. Hence even if the Heathen writers believed the things true
they relate of Christ (which will be shown in no case they do) their
testimony taken alone and unsupported by Christian testimony or
authority carries with it, absolutely, no weight to prove those things
under consideration. And, on the other hand, their testimony sup-
^ HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 209
ported by Christian testimony amounts to nothing more than
Christian testimony. Consequently, the only thing that this
Heathen testimony proves is that during the time when these
Heathen writers wrote, eeri;ain repori;8 of Christ were extant and
were believed by very many Christians.
Let us now examine carefully fair samples of passages directly
from the pens of those Heathen writers who give us an account
of the Christian Eeligion. The exposition of these passages is in-
tended as a key to unlock or interpret, in its true light, any other
passage that may be advanced from the pens of Heathen writers and
which limited space will not allow us here to quote. In every case
we shall find that (1) the Heathen writer gives us merely a faithful
report (not admitting the truth of such report himself) of things
told him relating to Christ by persons who believed these things
at the time when the Heathen writer wrote ; or (2) the Heathen
writer denounces Christianity as a fraud and superstition ; or (3)
the Heathen writer argues thus : granting (not necessarily admit-
ting or proving, however) that such wonders and miracles were per-
formed by Christ, then they must be attributed to the magical arts.
Our first passage shall be from the pen of that great Jewish his-
torian Josephus (Ant. XVIII., Cap. 3, Sec. 3), to which Christians
have attributed much weight : " Now," says the historian, " there
was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him
a man ; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men
as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many
of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ. And when
Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had con-
demned him to the cross, they that loved him at first did not for-
sake him ; for he appeared to them alive again the third day ; as
the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other
wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians,
so named from him, are not extinct at this day." The air of reality
which rings throughout this passage from Josephus, notwithstand-
ing what has been said, might still leave the unguarded in doubt,
if not advised to attend to one important fact ; viz., that this
account by Josephus is merely a report of a report. Josephus was
bom four years after Christ's death. He, therefore, did not witness
the things he relates concerning him. The most favorable author-
ity, then, from whom he could have obtained his information would
have been an eye-witness. Granting this, then, what does it prove ?
VOL. VII.— 14.
210 THE GLOBE.
Nothing more than that Josephiis' report is a faithful record of
what he was told. Josephus, himself, attempts to prove nothing.
The fact that, as an historian, he records such things of Christ is no
more a proof of their reality than that the miracles recorded hy Livy
prove the truth of such absurd things. The proof in each case rests
upon other authority. Josephus, in War 6, Cap. 5, Sec. 3, Vol. VI.
(q.v.), in speaking of certain wonders and especially of those refer-
ring to Jesus, the son of Ananus, tells us with respect to such won-
ders, where the burden of proof rests: " I suppose the account of it
would seem a fable, were it not related by those that saw it." In
like manner (as has been already shown) the burden of proof, re-
specting Josephus' account of Christ, rests upon the shoulders of
those who related to him this account. So by taking into account
the time when any Heathen writer wrote, that he was not an eye-
vritness of the things he relates of Christ, that he obtained his ac-
counts from others, and that the real burden of proof Ues on the
shoulders of those from whom he obtained his account, it will read-
ily be seen that every such Heathen account of Christ is merely
a faithful report of what others have related to him of Christ. Now,
we have shown, that such a report alone, and unsupported by Chris-
tian testimony carries with it, absolutely, no weight.
We now come to the only remaining Jewish testimony that is
supposed to give us an authentic account of Christ ; viz., the tra-
ditions of the Jews contained in the Talmud and to which Christian
advocates attribute much weight. The Talmud is a Jewish compila-
tion and consists of two distinct parts ; the Mishna, containing a
collection of Jewish traditions, and the Gemara, being commentaries
upon the traditions in the Mishna. The Mishna was first compiled
in the year 180 a.d. (some writers think later than this) by one
Jehuda, a Jew who collected, as Lardner tells us, the Jewish tradi-
tions from the mouths of the Jews themselves. The Mishna and
the Gemara together form what is called the Talmud, or, by way
of eminence, " The Study." There are now extant two editions
of the Talmud ; viz., the Jerusalem Talmud compiled alout 300
A.D. and the Babylonish Talmud redacted about 500 a.d. The last
mentioned is held, by the Jews, in great repute. In it are supposed
to be the traditions recorded of Christ. These traditions are thought
by Christians to carry much weight in proving those things re-
ported of Christ in the New Testament. Let us examine into the
matter.
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY. 211
It must be well borne in mind that the first collection of these
traditions, as already stated, was made by R. Jehuda in 180 a.d.,
that is 147 years after the death of Christ. As far then as the testi-
mony of Jehuda himself, taken alone, is concerned, it carries no
more weight than the testimony of Josephus or any other Heathen
writer. For what Jehuda has penned is simply a collection of re-
ports (called traditions from the belief that they were handed down
from mouth to mouth) related to him by persons in the same man-
ner that similar reports were related, as already shown, to other
Heathen writers. The truth of these traditions, then, does not
depend upon anything that Jehuda has written, but, clearly upon
the character and veracity of those persons from whom he has col-
lected these so-called traditions. Now to facilitate our examination
into the truth and reliability of these traditions, we must consider
several questions. First, who is the writer that has collected these
traditions, and is he a trustworthy compiler ? He was Eabbi
Jehuda, a Jew who, as we have seen, compiled these traditions of
the Jews not earlier than 180 a.d., at a time when Jews and Chris-
tians were most implacable enemies. His compilation, naturally, was
mostly intended for Jewish readers. Secondly, who were the persons
that related these so-called traditions to Jehuda ? Undoubtedly,
the Jews, a people whom Tacitus tells us (Lib. V., Cap. 13), had
" the usual propensity of men ready to believe what they ardently
wish." Josephus, in War 6, Cap. 5, Sec. 2, tells us that "there
was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants
to impose upon the people." "We thus see among the Jews, a people
both credulous and ready to falsify things, as the doing so might
advance their interests. Thirdly, how long a time intervened from
the time when these traditions are supposed to have originated to
the time when Jehuda recorded them ? At least 147 years during
which time the land of the Jews was thrown into the utmost con-
fusion. Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, the Jews themselves
were divided into many factions, and false prophets arose in num-
bers, deceiving and misguiding the populace. In view of all these
facts, we are to believe (if it be possible) that a .people who hated
the Christians, who were credulous, and who never hesitated to
falsify anything have given to the world a reliable, unalterable
account (retained solely in their memories for 147 years) of certain
things reported of Christ. Fourthly, who originated these tradi-
tions ? Christians tell us that they originated with Jews who lived
212 TUB GLOBE,
during the time of Christ and saw those things repori;ed of him.
But they advance absolutely, no proof, worthy the name, in support
of such a statement. On the other hand, we shall presently show,
that these supposed traditions referring to Christ axe not only in
the entire fabrications, but that they probably originated about the
time that they were collected by Jehuda. Josephus tells us, in a
passage already quoted from him, that, in his time, " the tribe of
Christians were all but extinct in Judea." Tacitus says that Chris-
tianity " though checked for awhile, broke out afresh, not only in
Judea, where the evil first originated, but even in the city of Rome."
Knowing the hatred with which the Jews regarded the Christians,
it is not to be supposed that during the time that the Christians
were all but extinct in Judea that the Jews would be very careful,
especially as we shall see that they have actually fabricated lies
concerning Christ, to store in their memories correct accounts of
him ; and, on the other hand knowing the disposition of the Jews
to falsify things, when Christianity revived in Judea, there is noth-
ing improbable in supposing that the Jews would originate or fab-
ricate, especially as Christianity attacked their own religion, false
reports of Christ. This view is greatly strengthened by what fol-
lows.
Fifthly, what is said or reported in those traditions contained in
the Talmud and said to refer to Christ ? It may be stated here that
the majority of these traditions in the Talmud supposed to relate to
Christ are denunciatory of him. Some are disgustingly so, and at-
test to the baseness of the Jewish character. It also attests that
the Jews would not hesitate to stoop to any statement. Lardner
(see Vol. III., p. 553) quotes a passage from the Talmud in which
one Akiba, a master attempts to prove Christ the illegitimate son
of a woman selling herbs in the market place. Upon this passage
Lardner has the following remarks : " An absolute fiction, the fruit
of deep-rooted malice I Though no person is here named (mark
this), there can be no doubt who is intended. And it is adopted
by the author of ' The Toledoth Jeshu.' '' It is to be observed here
(and we are not tripping Lardner up on mere words) that Lardner
is one of those many Christian advocates who quotes " The Toledoth
Jeshu '' (now conceded spurious) as authority equally as good as the
Talmud. We have a right, then to take, cum grano salis, his state-
ments concerning the Talmud, till we have made a fair examination
of those traditions concerning Christ contained in this Jewish Book.
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY, 213
When Lardner states that the passage referred to (and others of
a like nature contained in the Talmud) is a fiction, as respects what
is said, he has a good reason for upholding his statement ; for the
hatred of Jews towards Christians supplies a reasonable motive.
Further, every Christian must stamp such passages from the Tal-
mud concerning Christ, as in part, fictitious ; for there are only two
other alternatives ; viz., (1) to admit as true what the Jew says
(which it is scarcely necessary to say no Christian could do) or (2) to
reject the whole of such passages as carrying absolutely no weight,
whatsoever. But as Lardner stamps these passages from the Tal-
mud to be fictitious only in part, what is it, it may be asked, that he
states to be true in them and what proof does he advance to support
his statement ? He has already told us in the passage quoted from
him : " Though no person is here named, there can be no doubt
who is intended." Lardner sees in this and other passages from the
Talmud statements bearing a certain resemblance to things reported
of Christ in the New Testament. Thus Christ who is said, by
Christians, to be born of a Virgin and to have performed miraculous
things is misrepresented, by Jews, to be an illegitimate son and to
have performed wonders attributed to the magical arts. But Lard-
ner and other Christian advocates, in presenting this argument, do
not reason very deeply. They forget to take into account one very
important fact. When were these traditions first collected ? We
have already seen that the earliest collection of these traditions ex-
tant was made by Jehuda, certainly, not earlier than 180 a.d., or 147
years after the death of Christ. N'ow since the Gospels, at this time,
were preached throughout the known world, what was to prevent
R. Jehuda, or the Jews, who related to him these supposed tradi-
tions concerning Christ, from fabricating them ? Do these sup-
posed traditions contain anything, thought to relate to Christ, that
could not be taken from the Gospel writings and turned into fic-
tions as they appear in the Talmud ? We must confess that it is
not at all impossible for them to have been fabricated during the
time when Jehuda wrote. And when we consider the credulity of
the Jews, their hatred toward the Christians, and the fact that these
traditions supposed to relate to Christ in the Talmud are, without
the slightest doubt, in part, fictitious, we have proof reaching fur-
ther than a mere probability that all passages in the Talmud, sup-
posed to relate to Christ, were either fabricated by Jehuda himself
to please his Jewish readers or else were fabricated by the Jews who
214 THE OLOBE.
reported these things to Jehuda. If these things reported in the
Talmud, are not entirely fabrications, let Christians advance good
arguments showing that they are not. Let them show that Jehuda,
or the Jews from whom Jehuda received these reports, did not in-
vent them ; then let them show that the Jews who related these
reports to Jehuda obtained them, through a period of at least 150
years, unchanged and unaltered, from those who during the life-
time of Christ, are supposed to have originated them ; and lastly,
let them prove that those who first originated these reports did not
themselves fabricate them. We do not hesitate to say that anyone
will find this a task more arduous than, on first appearances, he
might be aware of.
But further Lardner, in speaking of the passage from the Talmud
we have referred to in particular, tells us that in this account no
name is mentioned of Christ. Dr. Gregory Sharpe mentions the
same fact with respect to similar accounts of Jesus, supposed to be
found in the Talmud. Dr. Gregory Sharpe also supports the deci-
sion of every historian, worthy the name, that " the Jews are well
known to be very bad chronologers at best. So that they are of no
authority in determining the age of Jesus." Now let us turn, for
a moment, to Josephus. In his " Antiquities " (Lib. XVIII., Cap. 3,
Sec. 3) he gives us an account of one Jesus, who is reported to have
done wonderful things. In War 6, Cap. 5, Sec. 3, Josephus gives
us a more particular account of another person named Jesus who,
also, as he relates, is reported to have done wonderful things. In
this last account of Jesus, the son of Ananus, we find a strildng re-
semblance between his words and those reported of Christ in the
New Testament. Thus compare, "wo, wo, to Jerusalem," from
Josephus, with " woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! "
from Matt. 23, 14. This is certainly as fair a resemblance as that
drawn by Lardner ; viz., between a child born of a Virgin and an
illegitimate son. Besides all this, if we examine Josephus carefully,
we shall find that he records twelve other persons (not including
the two already made mention of) by name of Jesus, and false
prophets innumerable. Now in view of the fact that no name, as
Lardner and Gregory tell us, is mentioned in these passages they
quote from the Talmud and knowing the chronology of the Jews
to be utterly unreliable, how is it possible for anyone to assert at all
(much less positively) to which of these fourteen persons possessing
the name Jesus (or perhaps to anyone of the innumerable prophets)
HEATHEN COMMENT ON CHRISTIANITY, 215
these passages from the Talmud refer ? And even if the name Jesus
had been employed, how is it still possible to state, with certainty,
to which one of the fourteen persons named Jesus these passages
may be ascribed ? The fact is that the entire matter is very doubt-
ful and hidden in irrecoverable obscurity. But as the preponder-
ance of weight lies clearly, against these traditions in the Talmud
concerning Christ, we must reject the authority of the Talmud
(so far as it is supposed to attest to those things related of Christ
in the New Testament) as evidence entirely too flimsy, unreliable,
and inconclusive to carry any weight. Hence we now see, also, that
if the Greek and Eoman writers obtained their account of the
Christian Keligion from the traditions of the Jews, such accounts
by Heathen writers would carry less weight than they do now.
Our next quotation is from the pen of Celsus as recorded by
Origen Lib. VII. : " Then," says Origen, " he (Celsus) accuses Our
Saviour himself, as if he wrought miracles by the help of magic."
This passage as many others from Heathen writers, is advanced by
Christians to show that while Celsus attributes the reported miracles
of Christ to magic, still he thereby admits that certain wonders
were actually performed by Christ. We have shown already that,
even if Celsus or any other Heathen writer believed such to be the
case, his testimony would go no farther than a mere belief and could
never really prove true such reports of Christ. But the probability
is that Celsus did not admit or believe that Christ had actually per-
formed any wonders. Like any opponent of Christianity to-day,
Celsus assumes certain things to be true in order that he may com-
bat them : Granting (by no means admitting, even should the form
of his argument imply so) that Christ performed certain wonders
called miracles, then, I, Celsus attribute such wonders to the arts
of magic. Upon such a supposition, which is a perfectly fair mode
of arguing, Celsus then enters upon his main arguments against
the Christian Eeligion.
Our last quotation is from Lib. XV., Cap. 44, of the " Annals " of
Tacitus : " For this purpose he (Nero) punished, with exquisite
torture, a race of men detested for their evil practices, by vulgar
appellation commonly called Christians. The name was derived
from Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius, suffered under Pontius
Pilate the procurator of Judea." This passage is quoted merely as
an instance to show what Heathen writers, in general, thought of
Christianity. If then the testimony of these Heathen writers, as
216 THE GLOBE,
conveying their opinions (for such testimony conveys little else)
carries with it any weight at all, it is directly against the Christian
Eeligion.
It is now a fit place to show here also, that while there can be no
doubt in the minds of sane men that such a person as Christ actually
lived, still Heathen testimony, considered alone, cannot and does not
prove true even this. The only real and trustworthy authority, now
extant, to prove true the existence of such a person as Christ rests
with the eight original writers of the New Testament ; and their
authority, alone, is more than sufficient to prove, as might easily
be shown, that such a person as Christ existed. But with respect
to Heathen writers, we have already shown that no Heathen writer
who has given us an account of Christ ever saw him, that such
Heathen writers wrote after the Gospels were written, and that
they obtained their accounts from sources that may be traced to
Christian authority. It is not to be denied, however, that since so
many Heathen writers have given to the world an account of Chris-
tianity it is proof sufficient to show that these Heathen writers did
not deny but granted or admitted that such a person as Christ actu-
ally lived. But to grant, to admit, to believe, or even to be con-
vinced of a thing is by no means to prove it ; and even the concur-
rent beliefs of all these Heathen writers cannot prove the existence
of Christ as some think who mistake what circumstantial evidence
is. For the beliefs of all these Heathen writers, either separately
or concurrently, may be shown to rest on Christian authority.
Finally to make clear that to believe a thing is not to prove it, we hold
up the concurrent opinions of all Atheists who believe and are con-
vinced that there is no God ; and still the greatest minds, in all
ages, have proved, beyond a doubt, that there is one good, infinite,
and all merciful God.
Much more Heathen testimony, supposed to support those things
relating to Christ, might now be adduced and shown to carry as
little weight as the passages already quoted. Space, however, will
not admit of this and we must rest content to refer the candid
reader to Lardner's " Heathen Testimony " which, being a Chris-
tian work, we cannot be accused of any mean or narrow prejudice
in the matter, other than, as Goethe said when expiring, to " open
the shutters, and let in more light." If, however, the reader will
examine all these Heathen writers in the same pure light that we
have endeavored to shed upon the matter in this paper, we do not
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 217
fear the result. And we are convinced that after such an examina-
tion has been made, every truthseeking mind whether Christian
or not, must agree with what has been proved ; viz., that the only
weight that such Heathen testimony can carry is to show that dur-
ing the time when these Heathen writers wrote there were many
professed Christians who believed the things that they reported of
Christ to such Heathen writers. On the other hand, it must also
be conceded that the only real testimony that could ever bear weight
to support those things related of Christ in the New Testament,
rests entirely upon the testimony or authority of Christians them-
selves. Christians, therefore, in advancing this ignis fatuus testi-
mony of Heathen writers to attest the truth of those things upon
which the Christian Religion is built must not only deceive them-
selves by blindly following such misleading testimony, but, neces-
sarily, must injure and weaken their cause, in the eyes of every
free, rational, and truth-seeking soul.
New York. George Parbury.
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES.
The New York newspapers of Tuesday March 16th reported that
on the evening of Monday March 15th there had been a large and
a very enthusiastic mass-meeting in Lenox Lyceum — called and
conducted, it seems — to consider "The Social Betterment of the
Masses." Here are a few clippings of the report of said meeting as
given in The New York World, my own estimate of some of these
clippings and a general view of the important subject under con-
sideration.
" His Grace Archbishop Gorrigan presided. It was a meeting or-
ganized by Roman Catholics, but Protestants took part. On the
platform sat noted philanthropists and the clergy of some of the
biggest and most influential parishes in the city. Around the great
hall in the boxes were the temperance societies that make up the
Archdiocesan Union of Temperance Societies. Under their auspices
the meeting was held.
" Flags and banners decked the hall. The band played stirring
music. The vast audience sang ' America ' and ' The Battle Hymn
of the Republic' Enthusiasm ran high.
218 THE GLOBE,
" Father A. R. Doyle, secretary of the meeting, opened the speech-
making by stating its object — a more intelligent, earnest effort
towards a bettering of the condition of the masses. He hoped that
the seed thus sown would grow and ripen, resulting in widespread
discussion throughout the United States. Then he introduced the
Archbishop, who was received with tumultuous applause.
" *It affords me the greatest pleasure,' began Archbishop Corri-
gan, * to preside over a meeting called for such a laudable and worthy
purpose. Before you leave I am sure you will be convinced that the
Holy Father's encyclical on labor does not shirk any responsibility,
goes to the root of the social discontent and suggests the remedies
which, if properly and independently applied by Church and State,
would lighten the burdens of the masses ! (Great applause.) These
differences of capital and labor can be settled. They can be settled
by pleading with the spirit of justice and of charity.'
" Then the Archbishop introduced Bishop John M. Farley, who
vigorously attacked the question at issue.
" * Your attitude,' he cried, * towards the drink question, which
is the bond of your society, yields you a right to take a prominent
place in any scheme for the social betterment of the toiling masses.
You have a wide field for your best work ; we all have a wide field
for our best work in bettering the condition of the toiling masses.'
" Then Bishop Farley read from the Pope's encyclical on the con-
dition of labor, which says it is shameful and inhuman to treat
workmen as goods and chattels, and that it is the employer's duty
to see that his workpeople have time to attend to their families, to
exercise the duties of piety, and to treat all in accordance with their
age and sex.
" * It behooves us, all of us,' the Bishop declared solemnly, * who,
by our intelligence or sympathies are able to see, to cast about us
and look for a remedy for these ills which do truly exist, and ap-
ply it where it will do the most good.
" * It is only the Catholic Church that can exclude from her fold
the demon of divorce that is devouring the classes to-day and
threatens to sink down into the masses.
" * It is only the Catholic Church that can exorcise the demon of
anarchy — there are no anarchists in the Catholic Church !
" * And it is only the Catholic Church that can work good for the
present condition of labor ! ' (Great applause.)
" Next came these resolutions, adopted with a hurrah, as the sense
of the meeting :
"* Religion, whose chief object is to lead men to the Divinity,
can best accomplish its purpose by extending a helping hand to
poor humanity. Therefore following Him who said, " I have com-
passion on the multitude," and guided by our great leader, Leo
XIII., we deem the earnest consideration of social problems a re-
ligious duty of the utmost importance, and in the solution of them
we must be guided by the lamp of inspiration and dogma, for any
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 219
solution that leaves God and the eternal principles out will very
soon end in disruption and catastrophe.
" ' Society, with its lawless elements, may well be compared to
a city built on a mountain within whose bosom burn a thousand
volcanic fires. Wild and unrestrained passions, avaricious greed for
gain, antagonism of the classes against the masses, selfish interest
as set over against the common weal, municipalities ruled by liquor
legislation — ^these slumbering fires, if fanned into a blaze, will leave
nothing but awful destruction and ruin behind them.
" ' It is not the standing army, it is not the cannons, shot and
shell, it is not the huge, well-disciplined police force, that can
smother the raging fires beneath the surface of society ; but it is
that power, and that power alone, which can reach the human heart
and so bend the will according to the principles of eternal justice.
" ' Eeligion alone can give to the morals an enduring basis and
to legislation a lasting efficacy.
" ^Therefore the most effective method for the social betterment
of the people is to continue more and more to hallow the relations
of man with man by the principles of the Sermon on the Mount,
and to infuse more and more the Christian ideals into the relations
of capital and labor.
" ' If the Gospel spirit that urges us to love money less and man
more were the dominant one, then would be bridged the great gap
between the poor and the rich ; then would every man of wealth
be solicitous for the toiler in his hard necessities, sympathetic to-
wards the poor in their dire needs, and make the homes, the schools,
the recreations of the common people subjects of study, with a view
to the purposes of social betterment.
" ' If America will continue to fulfil her great mission — that of
diffusing a wider liberty and a higher happiness to all classes — she
must guard the home life of the people, for the home is the nursery
of more vigorous manhood, cleaner living, better citizenship. The
education imparted to the children must be the reflex of a mother
teaching in the home.
" ' Hence we Catholics again remind our fellow-citizens that our
contribution to better citizenship in this city of New York is the
education of 34,000 of the children according to the highest ideals
of Christian citizenship, without one penny of expense to the city's
purse.
" ^ It is undeniable that four-fifths of the social degeneracy, in-
cluding pauperism, criminality, insanity, is the direct result of in-
temperance. Hence any scheme of social betterment that mil not
include temperance propaganda, vigorous and practical, will be weak
in method and futile in purpose.'
" Next on the list was Justice Joseph P. Daly, of the Supreme
Court. A storm of acclamation greeted him. The audience was
well worked up by this time to the spirit of the occasion. Justice
Daly's proposing definite experiments was enthusiastically received.
220 THE GLOBE.
" * There is one thing noticeable/ said he, ' in the Pope's great
encyclical. That is that it keeps in view the great question of the
prosperity of the masses. It is a great comfort to know that the
duty of caring for our fellow-beings is recognized. It is recognized
in the law because we are taxed to care for the dependent.
"*But this duty is best performed when voluntarily assumed.
Whereas there are not twenty State institutions for the care of the
sick and the destitute and little children, there are at least 240 sup-
ported by private means and regulated by great religious and other
societies.
" *I ought to include in this list the 500 churches in this city,
for each church has its charitable work. In this city there are 470
distinct societies. There axe 29 for the care of the aged, 23 for the
homeless, 123 for hospitals and dispensaries and 164 miscellaneous
ones. There are nearly 300 religious societies for the care of chil-
den. There are nearly 1,200 co-operative societies for the aid of
those who are ill or need a little help.
" * But there are things that can only be done by the whole people
of a city in concert. One is the question of proper houses for the
laboring people to live in. This subject is receiving attention in
every city in the world. There may be those who disagree with me,
but I think that if the State should interfere to build homes for the
poor the interference would be tolerable.'
" Before introducing Commissioner John T. McDonough, of the
Labor Statistics Bureau, Albany, Archbishop Corrigan spoke a word
in addition to Justice Daly's in favor of State dwellings for the
poor. He said that Pope Pius IX. forty years ago did the same
thing, turning much of the revenue of the Papal exchequer towards
making the poor of Rome healthier, happier and more comfortable
in the dwellings he built. Mr. McDonough said : * Is it any wonder
that the masses cry out when they look into their empty coal-boxes
and realize that the action of four or five railroad presidents can
raise the price of coal 50 cents a ton, pouring $40,000,000 more into
their coffers to pay usurious dividends on watered stock ? A corpo-
ration is an artificial person without a body to be kicked or a soul
to be damned.
" In introducing Assistant District- Attorney Francis Oliver the
Archbishop referred to his life among the laboring classes. Mr. Ol-
iver smiled with pleasure.
" * I have lived,' he began, still smiling, ' all my life on the great
east side. I have come from the people myself. I know something
of the injustices that have been heaped upon them ; I know some-
thing of the triumphs they have achieved by their unions and their
organizations. I think I am a little qualified to speak on this sub-
ject.
" *Here in this great city, here in these United States, of course
you have your remedies. Each one of you, as a citizen, has in his
hands a ballot. Having in your hands a ballot, it remains for you
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 221
to wipe from the statute books the laws that oppress you. Bear in
mind that many of you have within you the ability to obtain for
yourselves and your families what those that are rich now have
obtained — prosperity.
" ' There is a United State Senator to-day who ten or twelve years
ago was a railway car porter. He took advantage of the circum-
stances around him. He did not oppress the poor. But, bear in
mind, we are not here to revolutionize the society of which we are
members.' (Applause.) "
With the object of this meeting, as stated by Fr. Doyle, I have the
profoundest and keenest sympathy.
For the last thirty years I have preached in pulpits and in litera-
ture the Gospel as defined by the Pope — in short that it is only by
applying the golden rule individually to every human action that
any real betterment of society can be brought about. The only
trouble is, to apply it.
From recent exchanges I learn that the notorious Fr. McGlynn
claims that he, as a disciple of Henry George, is the source of all the
humanitarian ideas expressed by Leo XIII. and the late Cardinal
Manning touching the betterment of the conditions of the masses,
etc.
For the spirit of kindly wisdom manifested by Archbishop Corri-
gan at this meeting — as in all his public utterances as far as I know
them — I have the sincerest and most cordial admiration ; but at
this point my comment of approval ends, and my judgment is that
the Archbishop himself is too easily led by a set of men that are
far his inferiors.
For the general hurrah spirit of the meeting as if it really were
or by any possibility could be of any great service in the work of the
betterment of the masses or in any other real reform work I have
the most unutterable contempt, and I simply pity the clerics who,
leaving their own heavenly vocation, condescended to be mixed
up in such a popular display of folly.
For the real gospel of this mass meeting as preached by Doyle and
Farley representing the Temperance organizations under whose
auspices the meeting was really held I have a profound disgust bor-
dering on the contempt I have always felt foj cranks of all grades
who would substitute some temporary and cranky notion of their
own for the ethics of the Lord Jesus Christ as declared in the Script-
ures and held by the Catholic Church.
With the notion of Justice Daly endorsed by Archbishop Corrigan
222 THE GLOBE.
and alleged to have been initiated by Pius IX. viz. — that in the
building of state dwellings for the poor a panacea may be found
for the social betterment of the masses I have not a particle of sym-
pathy, but am satisfied that the incipiency and execution of any
such schemes would be cursed with dishonesty in contracts etc., and
that the outcome would be a viler and lower form of slavery to
political and plutocratic patronage than any one of the many forms
of such infamy that exist to-day, and God knows they are numerous
and despicable enough as it is.
All the resolutions read by Fr. Doyle at this great mass meeting,
except the last, might have been cut out of the pages of the Globe
Review any time these last seven years. It has been my constant
gospel that literature and every other refining and restraining influ-
ence of civilization proved weak and practically useless without
Christian principle or applied Christian faith. But the last resolu-
tion touching temperance crusades was really the object for which
the meeting was held ; and, in regard to that I have to say first
that its opening assertion to the effect that four fifths of our social
degeneracy etc. etc. result from intemperance is an absolute false-
hood.
In recent statistics of prison life gathered and given out by the
able ex-postmaster of Chicago, it is claimed that 60 per cent, of the
crimes that send men to prison result from the extravagance of
women, wives, daughters, etc. — who are not classed among crim-
inals themselves, and it is and long has been my firm belief that
another good 30 per cent, of the crimes committed by men, includ-
ing those usually traced to the liquor habit, result from the fact
that the homes, and so-called homes of men — including and espe-
cially emphasizing the cooking provided for them, the unhome-like
spirit that pervades them, etc. — are such as to drive men to saloons
for comfort and stimulation. But crank-like clerics of the Farley
and Doyle type know nothing of these things.
And if Farley and Doyle and other temperance cranks who, in
their conceited and self-righteous verdancy exaggerate the evils
of intemperance in order to give their own cant of temperance a
proud place in the betterment of the human race, and who appar-
ently exipect to redeem the world by the tinsel and hurrah of tem-
perance organizations still more verdant than themselves, would
study the teachings and life of our Saviour more and give less heed
to the notions of their own Americanized vanity they would prove
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 223
better priests and more effective moral forces in the social and other
betterment of mankind.
I do not wish to belittle the evils of intemperance. I have had
my own seasons of enthusiasm in favor of temperance reforms. I
have carefully watched the entire business for the last forty years.
I am aware that intemperance has proven a bitter evil even among
priests themselves — but when we remember the average social con-
ditions out of which priests are evolved, and when it is considered
how comparatively few of them fall into the evil of intemperance
or any other social evil, and when it is remembered how compara-
tively few men become drunkards out of the whole populations of
the nations, as compared with the numbers who drink regularly and
derive benefit from it, and yet never drink to excess, the wretched
and false assertions of such men as Doyle are clearly seen to be as
unchristian, and unmanly, as they are untrue and hence unworthy
of priestly or other utterance.
There can be little question that Jesus was a " wine bibber." Ac-
cording to the Scriptures he. was on one occasion at least a wine
manufacturer. There is every reason to know that St. Paul ap-
proved of wine drinking and in all probability practised it. The Old
Testament clearly approves of wine drinking and just as clearly con-
demns drunkenness. The ablest men of the human race these thou-
sands of years have been wine-bibbers. There is not a word trace-
able to our Saviour which condemns the habit of wine drinking —
and the wretched sophistry to the effect that the wine He drank and
approved of and that was in use in His day did not intoxicate if
taken to excess isioo thin and contemptible except for temperance
cranks and utter fools.
I am not pleading for intemperance or insisting that temperance
enthusiasts — like Doyle and Farley — should be forced to drink wine.
I am simply pleading for human and Christian truthfulness of state-
ment and for common Christian liberty and decency of life : not
to speak of Christian charity at all.
Again, when it is considered that those States and sections of our
own country which have made the temperance craze the main basis
of their morality — are sections now and long since given over to
the most sottish intemperance and to every other vice calculated to
retard the social and other betterment of the masses, an intelligent
person is simply amazed to find Catholic priests and prelates com-
mitting themselves to such lifeless tissues of falsehood and hum-
busTfirerv.
224 THE OLOBE.
If they do not need or desire wine, in God's name let them have
liberty to refrain from it. Nobody is desperately anxious to treat
Doyle or Farley, much less to force them to get drunk.
If they have drunkards in their parishes — as is most likely — ^let
them apply every known power of Gospel truth and supernatural
authority, or any iron-clad temperance-pledges to prevent such
drunkards from drinking wine, but let them speak the truth in
public and in private. Let them act like honorable gentlemen in
public and in private, and not assume that because they no longer
drink wine they are saints on that account, or that those who choose
still to drink wine are on that account less saintly, manly or hon-
orable than themselves.
The Catholic Church is divine. It is the only divine institution
in this world, but it is not true that there are no Catholic anarchists.
The Catholic Church is divine and its head infallible, but if Doyle
or Farley or the Archbishop of New York, or any dozen archbish-
ops, influenced by American temperance cranks, undertake to teach
publicly or to rule officially that manufacturers of liquor, or saloon
keepers, or drinkers of stimulants — usually called intoxicants — are
not and cannot be members in good standing in the Catholic Church,
they are as sure to be broken on the wheel of fate — snowed under,
despised and rejected of the true head of the Catholic Church as
any other false notion of doctrine and reform has been rejected
from the days of the Apostles until now ; and it is simply a con-
temptible falsehood and foolishness to state that any effort for the
betterment of the masses that does not include temperance that is
total abstinence, that is prohibition propaganda, in its schedule will
be futile etc.
Did the Apostles of Our Lord include total abstinence propa-
ganda in their crusade of the early Gospel ? Nay, nay I Yet they
had some success.
Did any crazy set of lunatics out of pandemonium ever include
total abstinence propaganda in the preaching of the Gospel for the
betterment of the masses — until the infernal Protestant rebels of
Yankee self-conceit concluded that some easy up-start, wild-cat
scheme of their own was better than daily obedience to the prin-
ciples of charity and duty as promulgated by our Lord and incul-
cated by the Catholic Church throughout its whole history ?
Is Doyle a better Catholic than St. Paul ? Is the Archbishop of
New York superior in wisdom or in life to the Lord Jesus Christ ?
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 225
In God's name, what are we coming to ? Is any and every verdant
whipper-snapper who has become enamored of the cant of temper-
ance or other reform, to bully the earth into his notions simply be-
cause he happens to be a Catholic priest or a Catholic prelate ?
The Catholic Church has enough hypocrites in it already, without
adding to its numbers thousands of young men and young women
or posing priests who would make new conditions of morality or
piety other than those proclaimed by our Lord and His apostles —
and who moreover do not and will not live up to their own stupid
gospel.
In the third and fourth centuries the most subtle and dangerous
enemies of the Church were kings, like Constantine, who, under the
guise of faith and friendship led the Church to depend too much
on the temporal power and promises of kings. The same sort of
influence grew and intensified until Charlemagne consummated it
by such lavish gifts and patronage that popes began to dream that
earthly possessions, temporal favor, the pledges of emperors, the
guarantees of potentates, and palaces of luxury were of greater
power and importance than poverty and sacrifice and simple loyalty
to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In truth it was all a sort of prelude to a thing called the " Mis-
souri compromise " in our own century. Men thought they could
serve God and Mammon spite of our Saviour's words to the con-
trary, and all this resulted in the monasteric piety of the l^th to
the 16th centuries when so many princes and princesses became
monks and nuns that the Church in its utter worldliness seemed to
think that the millenium of perpetual power had come. Instead of
this came Luther, and Calvin and Knox — renegade and worldly
priests — it is true, but, the natural and inevitable result of a long
heritage of worldly ecclesiasticism that had wandered from the
simple Gospel of Christ and had substituted sacrifice for obedience
— worldliness for wisdom, false standards of piety for true stand-
ards, until to-day — even, after three hundred years of penance and
a noble effort toward true Christianity (for which, God bless her)
the Church is still largely a minus quantity, and a neglected glory
in the very haunts of her old splendor, and so will it be again unless
she ceases to put cant for candor, pride for piety, self -righteousness
for justice, and any and every fuming of prelatical tyranny for the
wisdom that is full of the spirit of Christ and his eternal charity.
What do I mean ? Simply this — ^that Protestant Americanism
226 THE OLOBE.
under the claptrap shibboleth of liberty, temperance and patriotism
is the blackest and subtlest lie extant in our era of the ages, and un-
less the Church — looking utterly away from these fixes her gaze, her
heart, her soul, upon the spirit of liberty, and charity and justice
as taught and lived by Our Lord Himself, and understands that
these principles are not American, or Irish, or English or modem —
but God-like, Christ-like, human, eternal, broad as the race and
applicable to the race, the Catholic Church in America, though
apparently successful for a day, will suffer again the wrecks that
have split and blasted her in the past — and it is because of these
convictions that I say to Doyle, Farley and company stuff your
temperance propaganda in your pockets — study more carefully the
spirit and teachings of your Master, and let all Protestant Yankee
notions alone.
What is true of Neal Dow Temperance falsehood is also true of
Major McEanley tariff damnation.
Christ and Christianity and the true Church know no race or
nation. The true Church is for all times, all nations and all con-
ditions of men. No true theory of government can be truly Chris-
tian or Catholic that engages in the defense of a so-called principle
or creed or dogma that is not at once and palpably applicable to and
clearly for the benefit of the masses of all nations of the world. Is
a Temperance propaganda or a McKinley Tariff law thus ap-
plicable ?
Why, the best species of Darwinian apes know to the contrary.
To perdition with Americanism as far as it is narrow and bigoted
and based on eternal lies !
You cannot lift up one portion of the race to the injury of another
portion without denying the first principles of Christian truth.
Leave such work to Protestant bastards — Catholics should be more
Christianly engaged. If this hurts any archbishop or bishop — let
him hate me and pose as my superior if he chooses, but let him also
remember that there is One who judgeth all men — that is, God.
In the next place I wish to suggest that the next time the Cath-
olics of New York hold a mass-meeting under the auspices of tem-
perance cranks or others, it might be well for the clerical and other
speakers to be a little more modest in their claims concerning the
ideal lives and doings of Catholics in general.
As a matter of fact there are many Catholics who are anarchists,
but bad Catholics of course — as a matter of fact the European coun-
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 227
tries that were most solidly and devotedly Catholic for centuries,
are now, next to the United States, the most atheistic and anarchic
countries in the worid (I refer of course to Italy, France and Ger-
many)— and what is more seriously to the quick and soul of this
question is the fact that they were driven to this spirit and conduct
of anarchy because of the thousandfold luxury, extravagance, and
injustice of their rulers and their rich people as in fearful contrast
with the ignorance and poverty of the laboring classes — ^and all this
under the eye if not under the approval of Catholic popes and
prelates.
As a matter of fact again I have time and again been asked why
it was that I did not show up the corruptions of certain very prom-
inent Tammany Hall leaders — who, while claiming to be and
claimed as practical Catholics were, in and by their public lives,
a stench and a by-word of eternal scorn. The Catholic Church is
divine, but lots of, so-called. Catholics are as devilish as the Church
itself is divine. I am not complaining of the fact. It is in perfect
accord with human nature and human history. In truth I agree
with the now half-converted Rev. Dr. Parkhurst that New York
would and will be better off under Tammany rule than under Piatt
or Roosevelt rule, and it is simply a question of bosses.
What I am aiming at is to intimate very respectfully that before
such poorly informed persons as Farley and Doyle undertake to
make public speeches on secular questions they should write them
out and after getting the Archbishop or some competent layman
to revise them carefully, commit them to memory and so in public
delivery keep somewhere within the bounds of good sense and com-
mon veracity.
One of the strongest points made by Lawyer Oliver in his speech
for the betterment of the condition of the masses was that " There
is a United States Senator to-day who ten or twelve years ago was a
railway car porter." He might have added that many other mem-
bers of our national and State legislatures were a few years ago
in far less reputable employment than that of railway car porters,
but instead of referring to this fact as one of the signs of the glori-
ous goals to which the masses may attain in this land — if you only
build houses for them and feed them on taffy and water — ^I hold
the fact above as quoted by Mr. Oliver to be one of the many eternal
blunders of our entire American existence. Our deepest curse to-
day is not whiskey, but the fact that we have tens of thousands
228 THE GLOBE.
of ignorant boobies — ^public school boobies — alike for legislative
and moral teachers.
Untaught and half-taught mechanics, slaves and scoundrels axe
too often our rulers and would-be teachers. Thousands of upstart,
mere pettifoggers are our masters in so-called courts of law and of
justice, all too frequently mere clerics — who in their own vocations
are worthy of all respect and honor, parade their ignorance of
public and secular questions in public speeches and in the news-
papers. Mere boys and girls who happen to belong to the Young
People's Christian Endeavor Society, to some summer school com-
mittee, or some so-called temperance society sit in judgment upon
their elders and betters, upon scholars and saints who happen to
believe in the old-fashioned notions of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hence it is no wonder that mere antiquated spinsters of the Miss
Anthony type and mere boy priests of the Doyle and Farley type
consider themselves superior to all mankind and much wiser than
God Himself, in this generation.
Every enthusiasm for good and goodness, for true temperance,
charity and justice, is good in itself, and especially good when ap-
plied first of all to one's self — but any notion of reform — like the
total abstinence, the prohibition or the Puritan Sabbath notion,
which is an ignorant falsehood regarding the ingredients, the
nomenclature, the consequences and the patrons of the subjects de-
nounced is bom of pride, self-righteousness and hell, and the priest
who thinks he cannot save souls without bearing these notions on
his banner of reform had better quit trying to save souls at all and
devote himself to some secular vocation more in accordance with
the twisted, thwarted and tyrannical elements of his own low-grade
being and conception of what true salvation and true liberty mean
in this world and in all worlds to come.
If the new Firm of Redemption — which for brevity's sake we will
call — Farley, Doyle & Co. — insists upon having no wine at its ban-
quets and golden jubilees, I for one will make no objection. ^More
than likely their heads could not stand it, anyway, but if they insist
upon committing the Catholic Church to the doctrine of total absti-
nence from stimulating liquors or to the still stupider doctrine of
Prohibition, I simply tell them they have no grounds in the Script-
ures or in church history for such doctrines or expectations, that,
by the Eternal, they simply cannot and shall not commit the Cath-
olic Church to any such doctrines, and that unless they lay aside
BETTERMENT OF THE MASSES. 229
some of their officious superiority, some of us may feel bound to
expose the groundlessness of these pretensions more keenly than
we ever yet have exposed them.
The editor of the Globe Review, is unutterably disgusted with
all the posings and pretensions of reform represented by the clerics
and the Catholic " Temperance societies " represented at this " mass
meeting " on the one hand and unutterably indignant at the treat-
ment the Globe Eeview has received at their hands on the other
hand, and the editor of the Globe Eeview is so fully persuaded that
their course is alike uncatholic and senseless, and that what they and
the Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York need is a little more
true Catholic intelligence, such as the Globe Review is trying to
scatter, that he is willing, yea, obliged to put himself in direct
opposition to the verdant boomerangism of this entire so-called
Catholic movement for the betterment of the American masses.
The real betterment that these clerics and the Catholic masses
of New York, and all other American classes and masses are in dire
need of is such an enlightenment of mind as will lead them to com-
prehend the true principles of Catholic truth and Christian liberty.
But instead of seeking this, or accepting it when it is thrust into
their eyes they rush to a sort of McEanley Tariff religion as the
quickest way of raising the needed revenues of the soul, and dream
of redeeming the world by windy Neal Dow absurdities.
In conclusion I beg to suggest that, if Farley, Doyle & Co. — and
by the Company I mean to include all Catholic priests and prelates
in America who think they can do better work out of their voca-
tion than in it — are really anxious to promote the social and other
betterment of the masses — ^in heaven's name let them find a few old
negro mammies -of the old slavery classes, and a few old Irish or
English housekeepers — of the kind that existed before the des-
picably incompetent Irish and nigger lady cooks and housekeepers
of our day — and having found such let these clerical and other
American liberal reformers establish a school of housekeeping,
cooking and home-making instruction and insist upon it by stem
Catholic authority, — that every Irish Bridget in their congregations
shall contribute 50 cents a week toward defraying the expenses of
such "summer" and "winter school" of reform, and that the
same Irish Bridgets, now by the thousand incompetent and bungling
servants in American households and incompetent housekeepers in
their own households — ^shall attend the instructions of such ancient
230 THE GLOBE,
mammies and old-time housekeepers until they know how to cook
decently, how to ventilate a house properly — how to make home
comfortable for their employers and their husbands, etc. — and if the
superintendence of such summer and winter schools of reform is
not sufficient to employ their gigantic and progressive intellects
for work outside of their own and divine vocation, let them es-
tablish other schools to be superintended by any old-time, but now
depleted mistresses of old-fashioned politeness toward superiors
and equals and inferiors and persuade the most advanced of their
pious girls and boys to attend such schools and to pay for the in-
struction received therein, and to quit — at least for the next one
hundred years, their puerile and laughable efforts to teach philos-
ophy and the modem ethics of moonshine and bosh to men and
women who have not yet learned how to keep their own bodies or
their kitchen stoves clean.
I know how ridiculous this will seem to such august moralists and
summer school and Paulistic cranks as Farley, Doyle & Co. — ^but
if they would attend such schools themselves they might be much
wiser and better men. Truly,
William Henry Thorne.
THE DEATHLESS DEED.
To feel the surging blood within each vein
Tumultuous rush as though 'twere liquid fire,
And these were conduits, made but to restrain
That flood impetuous, so it mount not higher ;
— This, — ^this is exaltation, and each thought
An inspiration. Seize, aye seize the power
Supreme enravishment hath on your spirit wrought ;
Then gain the height ; — ^then scale the lofty tower !
If you would win and wear immortal fame,
Seek it alone in moments that inflame.
Our best is from emotion's conflict torn ;
Then when our noblest holds resistless sway
By sublimation of our better clay,
Then, — ^then alone the deathless deed is bom.
"New York, J. W. Schwartz.
GLOBE NOTES. 231
GLOBE NOTES.
I HAD intended to devote this entire June number of the Globe
Eeview to the publication of one hundred sonnets upon which I
have been at work for several years. I knew that a number of the
Globe thus made up would be a gratification to a large number of
my lady readers as well as to many priests and laymen of special
literary tastes, and I thought that it might possibly do something
toward appeasing the clawing and burning wrath of such bears'
cubs as the editors and writers that with low malice and contempt-
ible ignorance have of late made furious attacks upon me in the
Boston Pilot, the CatJiolic Witness of Detroit, and the Catholic
Tribune of Springfield, Mass.
When men write of me as these men have written I can only pity
and despise them. Their matter is as false as their souls. They
are not men of any such position, even in Catholic journalism, as
to justify them in expecting that I will, under any circumstances,
be provoked into arguing with them. They are simply tenth-rate
hack-writers, and slaves at that. They have neither mind nor
honor enough to see the truth when it is presented to them, and if
they had ability to discern the truth their positions as slaves of the
men I have criticised, is such as to prevent them from acknowledging
it. I can only say therefore that their references to my teachings,
to my position in the general serious literature of the world, and the
position of my Eeview are absolute and malignant falsehoods, and
that these assertions, coming from so-called Catholic "Pilots"
" Witnesses " and " Tribunes " prove such to be the pilots, wit-
nesses and tribunes of hell.
I will add further that if my faith in the Catholic Church were
not well founded it would long ago have been broken to pieces by
the low-bred treachery, the mean-spirited falsehood and the damn-
able ignorance of quite a number of its so-called respectable repre-
sentatives.
I try to be unassertive regarding the position this magazine has
won in the world, mainly in consequence of my own ^vritings there-
in, but when such Judases of the fold of Christ come at me as these
soulless scribblers come I am obliged to make prominent some of
the testimony regarding myself.
232 THE GLOBE,
In a recent issue of the Catholic Witness of Detroit, among other
falsehoods there is this — " This Review has never achieved very
great prominence in the literary world " — the despicable ignorant
hooby — does the writer imagine that because he may not have heard
of the long established reputation of the Globe that therefore it
has not achieved very great prominence ? Does he imagine that
very great prominence must include the slums, the kitchens,
and the rumshops of Detroit ?
During the three years that this magazine was published before
I became a Catholic and resolved to wield it for Catholic truth —
its masterly ability was recognized all over this land.
After its second issue the Unitarian Review — with headquarters
in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., frankly admitted that it was so far
in advance of anything then extant and that its only risk was in
keeping equal with itself ; and throughout the country this was the
estimate forced from unwilling minds.
In further refutation of this Catholic Witness I here quote a few
brief testimonials to the ability of the Globe — a few notices out
of thousands at hand in the line of recognition :
" One of the ablest Reviews in the English language, and we
cheerfully commend it to all intelligent readers." — Mt. Rev. P. J.
Ryan, ArchUshop of Philadelphia. Hon. A. K. McClure, Editor
Philadelphia Times.
" The spiciest and most thought-provoking magazine that comes
to this office." — The Boston Herald.
" Will certainly catch the public ear, and has set itself a hard task
to keep equal with itself." — Prof. J. H. Allen, in the Unitarian
Review, Boston.
" Chaste, pure, original, and reliable in every sense." — The True
Witness, Montreal.
" Mr. Thome is a brilliant essayist, and he has made the Globe
an organ of opinion in social, literary, religious and political matters,
quite unique in contemporary letters." — The Boston Times.
" The Globe is the best review that comes to our table." — Cath-
olic Tribune, St. Joseph, Mo.
" We strongly recommend the Globe as deserving a place on the
library shelf of every family." — Ahhey Siudent, Atchison, Kansas.
" It is always a pleasure to welcome a new number of the Globe.
It is the most reireshing and thought-provoking reading imagin-
able."— The Journal, MUwauhee, Wis.
" A publication of much more than usual force and of unusual
sprightliness." — The Chicago Israelite, Chicago.
" Mr. Thome is a brilliant man, and his magazine is the organ of
OLOBE NOTES. 233
an audacious, aggressive, many-sided intellect." — The Standard^
Syracuse^ N. Y.
" Brimming over with * good things/ and will be greatly enjoyed
by readers who appreciate the best in composition and the noblest
thought of the human mind." — Commercial List and Price Current,
Philadelphia.
" Nothing so original, so fearless, so scornful of shams, so strong
in intellectual integrity as your articles in the Globe have ever
come under my eye." — Col. Thomas Fitch, New York City.
" Nothing extant of which I know anything in the way of thought
can compare with your living words." — Et. Eev. Thomas A.
Beckee, Bishop of Savannah.
In my office I have literally thousands of testimonials from news-
papers, from priests of all nationalities, seculars, and of the various
orders, from Bishops — and from Catholic and Protestant laymen
and from scores of gifted women, all bearing the same order of tes-
timony. "Within a few months the Catholic Fireside of London,
England, declared that the Globe was " far away the ablest review
published in America."
When I was received into the Catholic Church over five years
ago, the Catholic and secular press throughout the country, treated
my work in this magazine with the same honorable recognition, and
any man who has watched closely the changed tone of some of our
prominent better class magazines, during the last seven years — their
elaboration of themes that the Globe has started and discussed in
a pure Catholic spirit — the shrinking influence of infidel writers
in such magazines, the changed and still changing attitudes of cer-
tain American prelates and their new utterances often almost in
the language of previous articles in the Globe Review, and in
harmony with, if not in assent to its teachings, and still is un-
wilHng to admit the immense influence of this magazine for the
advancement of pure Catholic truth in modem literature ; any such
man, I say — ^be he prelate, priest or Catholic editor of Judas Wit-
nesses or the Devil's Tribunes, must have a soul, so stinted, thin and
groveling that he ought to be whipped at the cart's tail instead of
posing as an editor of a Catholic newpaper, or a Catholic at all.
In truth it was only when this magazine began to criticise the
tomfool, gad-about noisy blusterings of certain Catholic prelates and
laymen who were making boobies of themselves by advocating and
attending so-called " Congresses of Religion," parading Faribault
and other systems of secular education, as preferable to Parochial
234 THE QLOBE,
and convent school education, and in general putting the American
flag before the cross of Christ : it was only when I began to criticise
this order of so-called Catholics and would-be Yankee itinerant mis-
sionaries of Neal Dow — and other reform absurdities that the Cath-
olic editorial slaves of said reformers began to find that the Globe
was not as great as they had taken it to be. A pox upon all such
pigmies, and let us thank God that they are only a noisy minority.
Within a few days of this writing — April 10, 1897 — I have the
unsought, voluntary testimony of learned and faithful priests speak-
ing not only for themselves but for the priests in their sections of
the country, to the effect that if the Catholic Church in the United
State is kept from a fearful schism, the Globe Eeview, and not
any prelate in the United States — ^has been the instrument used and
blessed of God — 'to prevent that threatened schism. Within the
past few months I have the voluntary testimony of well-known prel-
ates to the effect that the Globe Eeview contains more valuable
and inspiring matter than all the other Catholic magazines put to-
gether. •
I make no such claim on my own account. I have written in great
seriousness and earnestness in advocacy of what was clearly to me
pure Catholic truth and policy, and I have all along believed that,
spite of ceri;ain purple vanities and oppositions, God would bless
my work and make its service clear to the minds of all upright men.
Yet these hireling anonymous poodle pups of so-called " Catholic
journalism," with hedge-hog, ignorant quilliness, persist in trying
to belittle the Globe and its editor. What fools these mortals be.
Touching certain low-bred, vulgar assertions of the Filoi in abuse
of me because of my article in the March Globe on '^ Marriage
Vows and Others," I have to say — -first that the statements in said
article are absolutely true ; second that they will remain as the
accepted truth until the gentleman and lady supposed to be re-
ferred to in said article have contradicted my statement over their
own names ; third that the pages of the Globe Eeview are always
open to them, or to any persons who wish to refute any statements
made in this magazine ; fourth that until such signed and au-
thoritative statement is made the nameless, and wretched writer
in the Boston Pilot will please understand that I at least hold him
as a cowardly and contemptible liar ; fifth, that I here and now
and forever and all dare him or any other man. Catholic or
Protestant, prelate, priest or layman to use toward me, in my pres-
OLODE NOTES. 285
ence the language used by him regarding me ; and further that
if he is too poor, too dastardly or too timid to come to New York
and repeat his words, I here agree to come to Boston or to meet him
anywhere on neutral ground between Boston and New Orleans, alone
or in company and dare him to use the language to my face that
he has used regarding me in the so-called Boston Pilot.
Let me add, further, that, on the other hand, I not only af&x
my name to my harsher or milder criticisms of public men, but
I am always ready to repeat such criticisms to their faces and to
prove the truth of my assertions in any method and before any tri-
bunal on the face of the earth, and I here thank these wretches for
forcing me to make this discrimination.
Touching the poor, nameless Western clodhopper who has been
venting his spleen upon me in the Detroit Catholic Witness espe-
cially on account of my very kindly and considerate review of Henry
Brownson's book, and for the final comfort of all others who have
allowed themselves to dream for a moment that I have now or ever
had any thought of imitating the famous Orestes Brownson let me
say — first, the review of Henry Brownson's book was perfectly con-
sistent from the first to the last word of it, and that said review only
needed a fair-minded person of average intelligence to see and ad-
mit at once its kind and respectful tone and its absolute consist-
ency— in a word, I heartily and most sincerely praised the spirit of
the book and its attitude toward the flimsy assertions of modern
science, so-called, and commended it for these reasons, while I ex-
posed its utter and absolute weakness as an original statement of
mental philosophy, and without going into detail pretty clearly in-
dicated that neither Henry Brownson nor his father, the much-
respected Orestes Brownson, ever had the intellectual capacity or
the accurate training that could, in any sense justify either one of
them in presuming to state an original system of mental philosophy.
Second — let me add, once for all that I cannot help it if some of
the hearty admirers, alike of Orestes Brownson and the editor of the
Globe Eeview insist, now and again, — as they have done during
the last six or eight years in comparing the editor of the Globe with
the once famous Orestes Brownson, but most emphatically I wish
them all to understand that I have never felt complimented by such
comparisons. In a word, I have never considered the late Orestes
Brownson my equal as a thinker or as a writer, and that much as I
have admired and much as I still admire his earnest and powerful
236 THE GLOBE,
work, I should no more think of imitating him or any great writer
than I should think of imitating Henry Brownson or the nameless
scribbler in the ^Vitness of Detroit.
I will add in conclusion that while I consider it an honor to be
abused by such characterless, blatherskite, brainless idiots as the
writers for the papers named I have not up to this time felt willing
to allow their false and vulgar utterances to go unnoticed as I here-
after intend to do. But I was speaking of poetry and this is only
an aside.
♦ ««*♦♦*
In truth, in these days it is difficult for one to give any proper
consideration to poetry, or to avoid mingling in the game of the
political, religious and other gamblers that are all around us.
Just as I thought for instance that Archbishop Ireland, being a
man of sturdy sense, as well as of undoubted piety, had concluded
to bridle himself a little in view of the clear laying out he had re-
cently received, and further in recognition of the fact that he had
not been utterly unchurched for his wild-cat political utterances of
last year — the papers report him in Washington, D. C, delivering
an inflammatory Lenten harangue to the effect, in general, that con-
servative loyalty to pure Catholic faith is really our modem form of
rebellion — gigantic alike are the conceit, the patriotism and the
logic of Ireland. But it is not only Ireland, it is his claqueurs of
Catholic journalism, that we have to deal with. For when the Bliz-
zard of the Northwest makes a speech in Washington — between the
hours of his buttonholing McKinley for political pap for his friends
— all the claqueurs of Ireland from Detroit to Boston feel called
upon to echo his bluster all over the country. Indeed this seems to
me one of the most humiliating and weak-minded phases of Ameri-
can Catholicism — that no matter how futile or senseless or illogical
or unimportant or commonplace the utterances of a gad-about prel-
ate may be there is a general rush to parade his buncombe before all
the world. Here is what seems to be an honest report of some of Ire-
land's words in Washington, D. C, in the year of our Lord 1897 —
during the Lenten season :
" Opposition to his (the Pope's) direction, however much it
clothes itself among us, as among French Catholics, with the spe-
cious titles of conservatism and traditionalism and religious fear of
the new, is nothing but rebellion."
" When French Catholics are with the Pope, I am with them ;
GLOBE NOTES. 287
when they are against the Pope, I am against them. My position
is the same with German Catholics, or Catholics of other races."
As God is my judge I do not like to oppose this earnest man —
but I must do so. I first call attention to the evident dishonesty
of these words. Ireland knows as well as he knows his own name
that French and German Catholics are the last Catholics in the
world to place themselves or to be found in opposition to the Pope,
to any pope. In fact in their own lands during the last one hun-
dred years, and in this land during the last ten years they have suf-
fered every sort of persecution, misrepresentation and injustice, as
in the present case, rather than put themselves in opposition to
papal authority and direction, and for Ireland or any other writer
or speaker — prelate or what not, in the United States or elsewhere,
to slyly assume that they do put themselves in opposition to the
Pope — that this is their habit of doing — is a vile subterfuge un-
worthy any Catholic or Christian gentleman.
Next I wish to call attention to the unblushing egotism of this
assumption. For several years I have been making a very careful
study of the comparative culture and orthodoxy of the various races
of Catholic priests in this country and of the tendencies of these
same races of priests in their own countries, and I have been working
very hard at this problem while Ireland has been land-grabbing in
the Northwest.
I must not and will not make invidious national comparisons.
I have written enough to prove not merely to state that I have no
race prejudices. Moreover priests and prelates of all modem na-
tions are among my subscribers and readers, therefore I should feel
obliged to be cosmopolitan if I were not naturally so — but this I
must say — that the German and French priests in this country so
far as my studies have taken me — are among the most cultured, con-
secrated, sincere and orthodox Catholic gentlemen I have ever met
or ever expect to meet ; further that, in my judgment, any one of
the humblest of them that have come in my way is the equal of
Archbishop Ireland in ability to judge and determine wherein he
is for or against the Pope, and for his Grace of St. Paul to assume
that he is the judge of their attitude toward the Pope, and to inti-
mate that they are against him, and especially in view of his own
digressions, is so absolutely and provokingly presumptuous, imperti-
nent and coolly Yankee-like that I wonder he could ever even in his
238 THE GLOBE,
most conceited moments of conscious wealthy surroundings and
palavering American friendships have made such declarations with-
out blushing for shame. If he had any knowledge of French and
German history he could not possibly make such assertions, and
there are hundreds of modest French and German Fathers in this
country who could give him lessons in exact loyalty to the Pope and
trip him like a common schoolboy in their examination of his own
loyalty to the Pope, not to speak of his own orthodoxy.
Indeed, when I think of Archbishop Ireland as a prelate in the
holy Catholic Church, and who, by very reason of his exalted posi-
tion ought to be a peacemaker in the spirit of justice and charity,
going about from place to place declaiming and writing and acting
like a grovelling worldling, or a ward politician, and now in this
last instance, as in other instances, arraigning whole nations and
classes of his fellow Catholics as disloyal to the Pope, and so breed-
ing every kind of hatred and opposition, I marvel alike at the mercy
of God and the patience of the Church in allowing him to continue
thus without forcing him to bite the dust. But, though the mills
of God grind slowly, they grind exceeding fine.
He * « * * He «
It is delightful to turn from this vaporing of a prelatical casuist
to a little sensible actual doing by a good Catholic of New York.
All the Catholic papers have noticed the liberal act of ex-Mayor
Grace of New York in giving for himself and family $200,000 to-
ward founding a manual training school for girls in this city. I
do not intend to dwell at length upon the charity or the good sense
of this gift. I think that $100,000 of it had better have been given
to the Globe Review, because I believe that much as New York
needs training schools for girls, of the kind that Mr. Grace has in
mind, still that the Catholics in New York and throughout the
country are in imminent and deeper need of a clearer and more
intelligent, and more charitable understanding of the great ques-
tions of the day of which they are part and parcel, and concerning
which many millions of them now seem to be most lamentably ig-
norant.
But let us start with needles and stockings, and typewriting and
cooking and by and by we may rise to a clearer appreciation of the
value of pure Christian ideas and principles. What delights me
most in this contemplated scheme may be found in the following
paragraph quoted, it seems, from Mr. Grace's own utterances :
OLOBE NOTES, 239
" One of the principal teachings at the institute will be cooking,
something that a good many of our young women even in higher
walks of life want to know something about," continued the ex-
Mayor with a smile. " Good cooking will be insisted upon, and
young women who understand this will find that they will have
little trouble in securing deserving husbands and keeping peace in
the household when they have learned this ari;. Or if they cannot
get husbands they can be sure to obtain employment, as good cooks
are always in demand. Besides cooking the curriculum will include
the practical study of general housework, dressmaking, bookkeep-
ing, stenography and typewriting, and such studies as may be
deemed fit for the practical education of woman to enable her to
earn an independent livelihood."
I am very familiar with the average theories of sainthood in utter
disregard of the kitchen : that pious people should discipline them-
selves to a piety regardless of meals ; but it is all poppycock, and
the more I have seen of the dull-headed stupidity of students and
others who live in comparative disregard of good food and good
cooking the more I am convinced that cleaner and more intelligent
Bridgets, better housekeepers, and more effective kitchens must
be at the basis of all our future civilization. Even the Grace of God
has tough work getting along with a poorly fed dyspeptic. The
better our cooking the less need will there be for whiskey and beer
to counteract the ill effects of bad cooking and slovenly homes.
Therefore God bless Mr. Grace, his family, and his work of charity
— moreover it is well to put this new school under the charge of
the Sisters of Charity. They are among the wisest and most effect-
ive saints and housekeepers in the world to-day — but let the whole
business be kept out of any and all interference by cranky priests
like the New York Paulists, for there is no telling what reforms
they may want to bring in : eggs boiled in cold water — maybe, in
ice water ; chicken incubated or steamed in a soap factory instead
of broiled over the coals — steak fried till all life is out of it after
the manner of articles in the Catholic World ; fish served with their
fins on, for the sake of penance, and all seasoned with a little warm
water and taffy instead of ^vith wine, etc., etc., — ^these may figure
among the Yankee sociological ideas of reform if the Paulists are
allowed any voice in the manner of brandishing the gridiron in this
new school of kitchen redemption. So let the Sisters of Charity
manage the business entirely. Men are no good in the kitchen, and
not much good elsewhere.
240 THE GLOBE.
For many years I have been advocating all sorts of schemes look-
ing to the development of a more intelligent class of cooks and
housekeepers in the United States.
The prevailing ignorance of our present generation of domestics
is almost as alarming as their prevailing impertinence. In another
article in this issue of the Globe, written before I had heard of
;Mr. Grace's admirable charity, I have urged the Paulists and Bishop
Farley especially to give their attention to this matter. Many years
ago I urged the subject upon the attention of certain ladies of New-
York Sorosis fame, but they deftly gathered up their skirts from
behind — according to the latest fashion, threw back their hat rib-
bons, and talked louder than ever of the equality of the sexes, the
dignity and glory of the ballot, of the emancipation of woman, of
psychic research, of the steady march of civilization, of the Ameri-
can idea, of esoteric Buddhism, of reincarnation, liberal divorce and
other damnation, while they ate steaks burnt on the one side and
raw on the other, went with their skirts draggled, and their homes
undusted and unaired. Great was the modem woman, even before
the bicycle — =and now — now let us have a change — even if it has to
come through a manual training school for girls,
♦ *♦*♦♦*
The pesky Catholic editors. Archbishop Ireland, and the kitchen
cure had almost worried all thought of my sonnets out of mind. I
wish to explain however that instead of devoting this whole issue to
their publication I have concluded to give these poems to the Globe
readers, in instalments, of a dozen or fifteen in each of the next few
numbers. Thirteen of these poems appear in this issue, under the
general title of " Fore Gleams." Others will follow under the same
general title, and still others under headings of " Touches of Nat-
ure " — " New Madonnas," and " Love's Last Dreams."
The main purpose of these sonnets — as of all my work — is to
remind the reader that love is the ruling force in nature, in human
affairs, and in all the divine or spiritual economy of the universe.
In explanation of the varied structure of these sonnets I hold that
the Shakespearian, and other, — sometimes called irregular forms —
are just as truly and purely sonnet form, as the Petrarchan — that
the sonnet — which, as to thought and measure, finds its statement
in the octave and its climax in the sextet, need not reach a full
period in the octave, but may, without flaw or distortion, be con-
tinued, without such period, from the first line to the last ; also,
QLOBE NOTES. 241
that the second and third lines of the octave need not absolutely
rhyme with its sixth and seventh lines ; further that the sextet
may lawfully be made up of six alternate rhymes, of four alternate
rhymes and a final couplet, or of the more favored Petrarchan form.
In a word the varied structure of these sonnets is not accidental,
but with malice aforethought.
The inspirations that moved me to write these poems came un-
sought, and though the labor of making them — extending now over
many years — has not been insignificant, it has been a labor of love —
not of slavery or of mechanism.
I have no doubt that some of the male and female so-called critics
of New York and Boston who wear corsets, and try to get the Lon-
don cockney drawl into their nasalized Yankee speech, will put on
their single eyeglass, protrude their sensual lips, and squint various
objections toward these sonnets.
To these people and to all other friends or enemies I can only say
that the total one hundred sonnets seem to me to tell a certain story
of life that was much needed to be told in this way in these days ;
that the work is the best I can do in that line ; that I make no great
claims for my poetry, and as a rule prefer to speak in plain unvar-
nished prose.
« ^ ^: « « ♦ ♦
To return to the " American Idea," for a certain small fraction of
which it seems that Bishop Keane wanted to die, in purple splendor
before he went, to Rome, and for certain other small fractions of
which — eagle tips of which, so to speak — according to x\rchbishop
Ireland, the Pope himself is just aching to make some display ; here
is the latest pious acrobatic somersault of it — as it were — copied
from an editorial in the New York Journal of April 21, 1897 :
" The Rev. Mr. Sammis, pastor of the Baptist Tabernacle, at
South River, N". J., is a man whose courage is less open to question
than are his discretion and taste. On Sunday night last this clergy-
man introduced the phonograph to the pulpit. The machine seems
to have done about everything except to preach the sermon. It
played a violin solo, recited a psalm, sang hymns, offered a prayer,
which had been spoken into it by the pastor, and, finally, pro-
nounced the benediction. The effect of the whole performance
does not seem, by the accounts, to have struck the congregation as
shockingly incongruous.
" Brother Sammis says he expects to be criticised, but he professes
inability to see why he should be, in reason. He discerns no superi-
VOL. VIT. — 16.
242 THE GLOBE.
ority in sanctity of tlie phonograph over the magic lantern, which
is frequently used in churches. ^ I am not courting notoriety/ he
explains, ^ but I want to impress spiritual truths upon my people,
and if old-fashioned methods will not attract them I consider it my
duty to use up-to-date methods. As soon as the people get accus-
tomed to the phonograph in the pulpit, it will cause no more sen-
sation than does the organ our fathers condemned, or electric lights,
or cushions.' "
La^t year I suggested that the New York Paulists who were in
"Washington trying to convert the obstreperous Washington negroes
might introduce a lot of Edison phonographs — say the more
screechy ones and turn down the lights. I am not aware that they
ever followed my good advice in this or in other matters, but it
seems that Brother Baptist Samm — is more in sympathy with pro-
gressive American ideas. Perhaps Archbishop Ireland may succeed
in getting Leo XIII.'s blessing for this Baptist humbug. It is so
American you know.
Many years ago — that is, at least twelve years ago, when I was
wTiting literary and other editorials for the Philadelphia Times, I
suggested in an editorial paragraph that some sort of machine might
be invented and set up in each household connected by electricity
with the lips of some one famous preacher or with some central
preaching machine in each city or town or county so that one man
or one well-charged machine might do the preaching and praying
and choir-singing for a whole community or a nation or for the
whole world ; and all this to the immense saving of money ex-
pended in old-fashioned reactionary and refractory methods not to
speak of the comfort and ease of all our modem communities, who,
after revelling in vice till late Saturday night or early Sunday morn-
ing, might softly recline on cushions and pillows and sofas and beds
of luxury through the precious hours of the holy Sabbath and at
the same time lose none of the supposed benefits of the regular Sun-
day sermon.
I am not aware that my long-ago suggestion has ever been seri-
ously contemplated by anybody except perhaps by a few 21st cen-
tury, pre-existent, and reincarnated Madame Blavatsky idiots, but
it is plain that the Baptists, finding that plunge baths grow as com-
monplace as sprinkling in the general amusement and conversion
of souls, are bent on bringing to their aid all American progressive
ideas that do not conflict with Mr. Eockefeller's idea of baptism.
GLOBE NOTES. 243
Archbishop Ireland should consider this matter. It would
to be thoroughly American, don't you know. Still it is not.
In truth, Oarlyle, more than a generation ago, called attention to
the fact that Jean Paul Eichter had suggested a sort of brazen
town-preaching and singing machine to take the place not only of all
old-fashioned religious services, but of all old-fashioned musical
entertainments as well.
I believe he wanted the thing done by machinery, but that was
when all scientists and some poets thought the universe was a soul-
less mud-pie made and rounded and crimped at the edges even by
soulless machinery.
Now the electricians and the psychic sky terriers, and the tem-
perance cranks are our masters and everything must go with a whiz
and a searchlight, and an American flag or it is sure to be refractory.
Great is the Eev. Sammis and great is the Blizzard of the North-
west. I have faced the music and know whereof I affirm.
« « He He :i: * *
■ The question Which American Prelate is to get the next "red
hat " (or cap, is it) ? seems to be up again. According to the St.
Louis Review, —
" We read in the Washington correspondence of the Freeman's
Journal :
" Correspondence from Rome to the highest authorities of the
Church here develops the fact that Bourke Cockran is at Rome urg-
ing the propriety of raising Archbishop Corrigan to the cardinalate
at the next Consistory. Your correspondent is in a position to state
that Mr. Cockran will not succeed. If the Pope decides upon an-
other American cardinal, the choice will not fall on either Arch-
bishop Corrigan or Archbishop Ireland. Archbishop Ryan of Phil-
adelphia is the only one who has the remotest chance. The metro-
politans of New York and St. Paul will not be considered."
This is a very funny combination. Five years ago a Chicago priest
told me that he had seen the official letter offering the next Ameri-
can cardinalate to Archbishop Ireland; but I have had various rea-
sons since then to learn that the word of my informer was not to be
relied on ; and various refractory trifles have occurred during these
past five years to indicate that his Grace of St. Paul is not in any
immediate danger of being overwhelmed with honors from Rome.
Within the last twelve months certain secular newspapers re-
ported a genial pleasantry as passing between his Grace of Phila-
244 THE GLOBE.
delphia and Cardinal Gibbons, the latter having twitted the former
that as he had one red cap already he need not be expecting another
from Eome. His Grace of Philadelphia replied that having received
his auburn adornment from nature he was not dependent on any
human power for the bestowal of that honor upon him. So it
seems that Archbishop Eyan is already well supplied with a carmine
cranial covering, though his recent silver jubilee would appear to
class him among those not wholly opposed to the white metal. In
truth many things seem strangely mixed in these hilarious days of
silver and other jubilees. Are they not getting a little too numer-
ous anyway ?
I had always looked upon it as one of the glories of the Roman.
Catholic priesthood that they sank their individuality in the majesty
of the Church herself, but in these days there seems to be every sort
of " Hurrah, boys ! " from a wooden wedding to a golden jubilee —
the latter it seems to me being quite excusable. I mean no reflection
upon the silver affair in Philadelphia. The very fact that Arch-
bishop liyan could gather among the speakers in his honor such
confirmed old sinners as Col. McClure, and ex-Judge Thayer, would
seem to imply that he has many popular qualities of mind and
heart other than those usually recognized by the straight-laced
saints and angels.
Indeed it is a matter of newspaper history that His Grace of Phil-
adelphia has now and again given the honor of his presence and the
brilliancy of his wit to the high old times, known as the banquets
of the Clover Club, and he may not always have been morbidly con-
scientious in his denunciation of those wrenchings of justice for
which the courts of Philadelphia have been famous since his Grace,
the present Archbishop, has been a resident and the chief father of
souls in the City of Brotherly Love.
But every dog has his day. I see that Wanamaker is out denounc-
ing political corruption in the management of elections. Of course
it is a shame that he was not made United States Senator — but
having spent all his spare cash in that losing game, what could he
expect but neglect on the part of Mark Hanna & Co. What saints
these mortals be !
For my own part, and, seriously, I should be delighted to learn
that the cardinalate had been conferred upon either Archbishop
Corrigan, Archbishop Ryan, or Archbishop Feehan — and I am just
as free to confess that as Archbishop Feehan — though far the
GLOBE NOTES. 246
quieter — seems to me the abler man of the three, I should be most
happy to see the highest honors of the Church conferred upon his
Grace of Chicago.
But the funniest part of this entire proceeding is that Bourke
Cockran should be at Rome as the ecclesiastical envoy and honor-
seeker for his Grace of New York.
A few months ago this renegade of Tammany Democracy was
making an awful fool of himself all over this country orating for
McKinley. Next he was making a still greater clown of himself
in Boston trying to explain to the hard-headed Yankees how it was
that the prosperity promised if McKinley were elected had not come.
But it had come to Bourke out of the $18,000,000 contributed by
the rascally plutocrats who purchased McKinley's election. And
now that this noisy spread-eagle outcast from Tammany, this tem-
porary hired slave of Mark Ilanna should be in Rome as the honored
representative of Archbishop Corrigan, is more than I can believe.
I would rather believe that the Freeman's Journal which recently
opened its pages to publish a sort of true report and defense of
Archbishop Ireland's Lenten harangue in Washington, knowing
all the while that such proceeding would be exceedingly offensive
to his Grace of New York, had entered into a kind of Catholic plot
to annoy Corrigan. But if it should eventually appear that Bourke
Cockran was sent to Rome in the interests of Archbishop Corrigan
and with the i^rchbishop's approval then I pray God that never an-
other honor of any kind may fall upon the kindly but not overly
able brow of his Grace of New York.
In a word I draw the line on Cockran as an utter blatherskite
hireling of Republican sharks, and with him I would class and cover^
with eternal soorn that other Catholic hireling — Powderly. If
they are practical Catholics may heaven lead me some other way.
This to me is the crucial point in the so-called Freeman's Journal
correspondence.
There are however still other ways of looking at this strange com-
bination. Cockran was the tool of certain plutocratic cliques in the
East and in the Southwest and Northwest, and if his so-called ora-
torical services to last year's campaign of the money-grabbers • and
the land-grabbers have made him so valuable in the eyes of thieves
that he has at the same time become the accredited honor seeker, at
Rome, for Archbishop Corrigan, why he may even become the rec-
onciler of Ireland and Corrigan, and these gentlemen — plus Mr.
246 THE GLOBE.
Whitelaw Reid — the questionable capturer of the Xew York Trib-
une, and one of the most noted sleuth hounds of our modem effete
and nauseating Republicanism, may all unite perhaps with Wana-
maker and make a sort of Catholic count or lay cardinal out of
Bourke Cockran himself. One good turn deserves another. It is
a mad world, my masters, but there are a few of us not yet scared
by the storms or plots of hell.
« « * 4c ■ ♦ * 4c
When the matter for this number of the Globe was all ready
for the printers I received a pamphlet entitled " Archbishop Ireland
as He Is." Perhaps it was fortunate that there was not space in this
issue for a review of that pamphlet ; for after reading it I thought
of telegraphing to Bryan, Tillman, and the Texas Iconoclast for the
loan of a few extra adjectives wherewith to express my unutterable
indignation toward a certain American prelate who has recently
been posing as the special advocate of Leo XIII. I intend to review
said pamphlet in the next Globe and to lay bare to the sunlight
every important fact that it contains.
H* V "n 'p V . ^ nt
In concluding these Globe " Notes," I am moved to say that the
two months elapsing between the issue of the March Globe and
this writing — May 13, 1897 — have been the most successful two
months in the history of the Globe Review, and that I am unspeak-
ably grateful to those hundreds of subscribers who have, during
this period, responded so promptly- and so generously to the claims
which the Globe has made upon them. A few weak-kneed gentle-
men have fallen away, but a much larger number of new subscribers
have come to fill their places, and the Globe is now selling better
through trade agencies than it has ever sold before.
William Henry Thorne.
-e
THE GL03E.
:no. xxYii.
SEPTEMBEK, 1897.
IN MEMORIAM.
" In the midst of life we are in death " ; sooner or later this great
saying comes home to us all, and Heaven only knows whose firm
footing on this earth the feared and famous reaper will next cut
entirely away.
One after another good friends of the Globe Eeview have ceased
to send in their subscriptions, their kind words of cheer and bless-
ing, and have passed to that account which is balanced according
to laws of justice but dimly mirrored in any of the courts and count-
ing-rooms of this world — and I have said nothing of their departure,
that is, I have uttered no public word; but during the past summer
the hand of death seems to have been gathering on every side, till
at last it has seemed to me but just to say some few words in memory
of the dead.
Within a year after founding this magazine I noticed with pleas-
ure that some of the most appreciative yet discriminating public
notices made of it came from the Boston Herald, and this was all the
more surprising and gratifying because, of fixed purpose, and from
the start, I had pledged to heaven all the strength of my soul against
the diluted absurdities of Emersonian transcendentalism as only a
new and flimsy expression of various worn-out errors that ought to
have been laughed off the face of the earth centuries before Emer-
son was bom; and, sure enough, for some reason or another, this
giddy-headed moonshine has faded fast during these last ten years.
VOL. VII.— 17.
248 THE OLOBE.
I did not then know by whom these Herald notices were written;
but two or three years later I learned from mutual friends that they
were the work of Rev. Julius H. Ward, fomieriy a rector in the
Protestant Episcopal Church. Later, I met Mr. Ward, and had
various hearty interviews with him, and I have always held it
greatly to his credit that even when this magazine became Eoman
Catholic in its sympathies and purposes, Mr. Ward's notices in the
Herald were always more just than I had any right to expect; and
in all my talks with him I found him a fair-minded and earnest
man. About two years ago he had an excellent article in this maga-
zine in review of Balfour's Foundations of Belief.
He was hardly more than sixty years of age, and yet before me
are various newspaper clippings telling the brief, sad story of over-
work, over-worry, an insane asylum, and an untimely death.
Not wholly content in the harness-work of the ministry, I gather
that Mr. Ward essayed public lecturing, as Emerson and Joseph
Cook had done before him; but he was neither an Emerson nor a
Joseph Cook, far as both of these men were from any clear and
comprehensive view of Christian truth and Christian history. I
think it was the once famous lecturer. Dr. Lord, who said that in
order to be a reformer a man must have stomach and weight as well
as an active brain. Mr. Ward was rather a frail, short man, of the
Henry Longfellow type of face and build, taken to the study of
theology and social reform; but he was sharper-featured than Long-
fellow, and it was this sharp-featured- Yankee, earnest desire to do
and be something beyond his genius that hurried him — via news-
paper editorial writing and literary work — to a condition of mental
collapse and an early grave. He was one of the best of a fast-fading
type of New England men, quick of intellect, earnest and pure of
purpose, wiry and tough of being, but over-elate with the poor
shams and dreams of liberty that modern Protestantism has hurled
in a muddle of midnight upon our day and generation.
I could speak more at length of his work, performed, and pro-
posed but not performed; but, as there is no abiding-place in this
world for the work he did, except in the appreciative memories of
the present generation, such references would be vain. Apparently
it would have been better could he have gone on preaching snch
gospel as the Episcopal Church would allow; but this very unrest
— only one of a thousand similar unrests that are harassing the Prot-
estant clergy of our time — is in itself a helpful evidence of the
IN MEMORIAM. 249
tottering and crumbling walls of the rebellious temples among
whose presages of ruin Ward was born and reared.
It is therefore in the cultured and honest purposes of the man
rather than in the serious work he did or dreamed of doing that
his friends must find ground for the human praises with which we
are only too glad to crown the worthy dead.
Between three and four years ago, when the office of the Globe
Eeview was in Chicago, I received, one day, a closely-written, well-
filled manuscript article in advocacy of the temporal power of the
Popes. It was an able, well-thought-out piece of work, and as it
hailed from Boston, I gave the article especial and careful attention.
It advocated the restoration and the perpetuity of the Pope's tem-
poral sovereignty on the well-worn ground that the temporal power
was necessary in order to the free and perfect execution of the Pope's
spiritual headship of the Catholic Church.
The author of this article was Mr. James Finn, of Boston. The
work was well done, as I said, but the position taken seemed to me
so false and untenable that I wrote in reply, and published in the
same number of the Globe that contained Mr. Finn's article, my
own article, " Abandon the Pope's Temporal Sovereignty," which,
though much praised and abused, as far as I know, has never been
satisfactorily answered.
The appearance of these two articles in Number 15 of the Globe
gave rise to a good deal of discussion and led, among other things,
to a brief correspondence between Mr. Finn and myself. Through
him I learned of other writings of his, of expectations of fame and
remuneration which, alas! never came.
I never met Mr. Finn personally, but this correspondence left
upon my mind the clear impression that the author named was one
of those choice, refined, consecrated souls, given to study and to
work for his fellow-men; a man of whom the world — especially the
age and corner of it in which he lived — was not worthy. Hence I
was not surprised to learn, within a few days of the reception of
the news of Mr. Ward's death, that Mr. Finn had died, in peace,
but leaving as legacy for his children only the good name and
stainless influence -of a beautiful life.
I have long ceased to rail at the world for stoning its prophets
and crucifying its saviours. It is the world's old way, and prophets
and saviours must always live with the future in view if they would
250 THE OLOBE.
escape the despair arising from neglect, abuse, and every form of
misunderstanding.
I am not sufficiently familiar with the average work and life of
Mr. James Finn to affirm more or less of his existence, but this
much seemed due to one who had found the Globe Review among
its many enemies in Boston and had been moved to write a capable
article for its pages. In truth, the early summer months of this
year found me not only in serious illness, for my own part, but every
few days some message of death and some flutter of angels* wings
seemed to keep my nerves in perpetual strain.
Nearly thirty years ago, when I was residing in Philadelphia and
preaching on Sundays to a " Liberal Congregation " in Spring Gar-
den Hall, there came to my house, one day, a stranger whose card
bore the name of De Lancy Crittenden. It proved that Mr. Crit-
tenden was a lawyer from Rochester, N. Y., and that one of his
errands to Philadelphia was to hear me preach and extend to me
a personal invitation to visit Rochester and fill the pulpit of the
Unitarian Church there for a time.
Later I went to Rochester and preached as per invitation, was a
guest at the home of the Crittendens, and from that time to the
present year Mr. Crittenden and myself kept up a sort of distant
but kindly friendship. When I founded the Globe Review in
1889 I sent him a first copy, and promptly received a characteristic*
postal-card in reply.
The second issue of the Globe contained my much-abused ar-
ticle, called " The Infamy and Blasphemy of Divorce," and next
to it was a much milder and quieter article on certain legal aspects
of the divorce question by De Lancy Crittenden; and through all
the years of stress that have followed the founding of this magazine,
hardly a single issue has failed to bring in quick response a crowded
little postal-card from this good friend.
Only last year Mr. Crittenden had an article in the Globe, en-
titled " Religion in Politics." It was not wholly the Anti-A. P. A,
article that I was expecting, but it was quietly and clearly thought-
ful; and, on the whole, though Mr. Crittenden was still a Unitarian,
the article was favorable to the Catholic Church.
This summer, close upon the heels of the letter from Mr. Finn's
survivors telling me of his death, there came, not my good friend^s
cheery and incisive postal-card, but letters from his brothers telling
me that De Lancy Crittenden was dead.
IN MEMORIAM. 251
Mr. Crittenden was a short, spare, wiry little man — never, I think,
in robust physical health, but always vigorous and quick of mind,
ready-witted, an enthusiastic student of modern literature, and,
as he grew past middle life, was almost the exact image of his
father, who for many years was Librarian in one of the Rochester
libraries.
Like the Rev. Dr. Ward, Mr. Crittenden still held his respect for
and his interest in the Globe Review after its pages were devoted
to the defense of Catholic faith, and the change in my own ecclesi-
astical connection made no change in our personal friendship. He
had no faith, but a good deal more principle than many who pro-
fess to have faith and Catholic zeal.
At a little further distance removed, in the sense that they were
not writers for the Globe, I am moved to embrace in these kindly
memories three or four other good friends of this magazine who
have, within a year or two, passed to their heavenly reward.
Within a few hours of the news of Mr. Crittenden's death came
the sad announcement that His Grace, Archbishop Jannsens, of
New Orleans, while at sea on his way to Europe, via New York, had
breathed his last. In some sense this seemed to me the saddest
news of all.
I met the late Archbishop only once, for a little while, at his
residence in New Orleans, more than two years ago, but the sturdy,
strong sense of the man, evidently allied with fine scholarship, with
great integrity of soul and of purpose, and the shining goodness, the
simple and heavenly piety of his life — all apparent in his honest
face and unaffected and unpompous manner — won my admiration,
my trust, my devotion on sight; and his kind words to me, when
forwarding his annual subscriptions to the Globe Review, indi-
cated clearly enough that his exalted position had not blinded his
vision to the value of Catholic truth, even though expressed by
one in my position. In truth, ecclesiastical honors and position
do not add a particle to the real value of any truth, nor can such
honors or position weaken a hair's breadth of the power of truth,
though it were uttered by a victim on his way to the scaffold or
the cross.
In a word, I feel that the Globe and its editor — not to speak of
the Church and the Archbishop's nearer interests and friends —
have met in his death a personal loss that cannot soon be filled.
262 THE GLOBE.
I hold that Archbishop Jannscns was a great man as well as a
good man, and that one of the supremest evidences of his great-
ness and goodness may be found in the fact that he never posed
for popular fame or applause., but devoted all the energies of his
able mind, all the kindness of his noble and benevolent heart, all
the scholarship and culture of his accomplished and consecrated
life, to the archdiocese over which heaven had placed him as ex-
emplar, ruler, and teacher; and in this particular I would to God
that some of the rest of our archbishops would follow his excellent
example.
"What now seems to me but a few weeks earlier — ^though I think
it was longer — came the news of the death of Archbishop Grace,
of St. Paul, Minn. I never had the honor of meeting the venerable
and devoted Dominican prelate of St. Paul, but he had long been
a very kindly subscriber to this magazine, and, only a little while
before his death, had sent me an earnest word of encouragement
with his last subscription.
Naturally the Dominican orders of priests and nuns are all very
dear to me; for it was through the earnest and patient efforts of
the Eev. 0. A. Walker, O.P., formerly Chaplain of St. Clara's
Academy, Sinsinawa, Wis., and in the lovely little chapel of the
Dominican Sisters at Sinsinawa that I was received into the Cath-
olic Church; and when I learned that the Archbishop of St. Paul,
whose kind letters had now and again encouraged me, was a Domin-
ican, I was all the more grateful as these letters came to me.
In recent years the quiet and sterling qualities of the late Arch-
bishop Grace, as compared with the loud and ambitious posings
of his famous successor, only served to endear to my heart still
more closely the good and modest and efficient and pious and able
prelate, who has now gone to join the countless throngs of hi^
white-robed brethren who have passed before him into the lands
of sunshine and immortal love.
* * * i^ m *•»
Something of the same sense of personal loss came to me on two
occasions last year when I heard respectively, of the death of Right
Reverend J. J. Conroy, of New York, and that of Rev. Fr. Walter,
of Washington, D. C.
While the office of the Globe was still in Chicago — ^in truth soon
after I was received into the Church — I received the kindest com-
IN MEMORIAM. 253
nmnications from Bishop Conroy. And when I finally moved the
office of the Globe to New York, I learned that he had been the
first to introduce it to several of the more intelligent religious en-
gaged in teaching the higher classes in certain New York convent
schools. At the same time I learned that his health had already
grown feeble, and soon the word came that he was no longer among
the living in this world.
I never had the honor of his personal acquaintance, but his
letters to me and the hearty greetings of some of the noble women
to whom he had introduced my work with enthusiastic utterances,
which modesty forbids my using here, all indicated what a good
friend I had lost when Bishop Conroy yielded his citizenship in
this world for the higher citizenship of the well redeemed.
I can speak in almost precisely the same terms and in the same
spirit of the death of Eev. Fr. Walter, late of Washington, D. C.
His letters to me had been full of kindness and good cheer. In-
deed, it is because of the hearty encouragement of the class of priests
and prelates I am here naming, and which from other parts of the
land is still daily reaching me, that I have been able and still am
able to bear up under the abusive and misunderstanding public
notices that quite other orders of priests, prelates, and laymen feel
called upon in their abundant charity now and again to heap upon
me; and if in view of these contrasting opinions I now and then
grow weary of turning both cheeks to my smiters, and cry out " Ye
whited sepulchers! " etc., I beg my good friends to be a little patient
with me.
It is not that I fear them — ^indeed I hardly take time to despise
them — but I am resolved, if possible, even at the risk of my own
wounded feelings, to make of them better, squarer, and nobler men.
But no harsh note must Jar the heart's deep, hidden, unuttered
symphony that sings itself back of these last words of dear friends.
Perhaps a little farther away as to time, but still seeming very
near to me, came the news of the death of my good friends, James
E. Garretson, M.D., and A. E. Thomas, M.D., both of Philadelphia.
Dr. Garretson was a well-known author and of world-wide fame
as a surgeon. For many years he was Dean of the Philadelphia
Dental College and a professor in the Medico-Chirurgical College,
and Dr. A. R. Thomas was for many years Dean of the Hahne-
254 THE GLOBE.
mann Medical College and professor of anatomy in said institution.
As these gentlemen represented different and opposing schools
of medicine, it is doubtful if they ever met personally, though they
were neighbors in the locality of Sixteenth and Chestnut Streets,
Philadelphia, for many years. But both of them were good friends
to the Globe Review and its editor.
.Dr. Garretson was of Quaker birth and training, and Dr. Thomas,
in his early life, affiliated with the Baptists.
While I was pastor of the Darby Presbyterian Church, in the
suburbs of Philadelphia, from 1865 to 1868, Dr. Garretson pur-
chased a country place within friendly hailing of my parsonage,
and was a frequent attendant at the services of my church. It was
here and under these circumstances that we became acquainted.
It was a period of immense reading and of corresponding doubt of
Calvinistic truth with me, and many a Sunday after my morning
sermon, which had been only a torrent of sentences combating the
doubts in my own mind. Dr. Garretson lingered in the grounds
between the church and the parsonage waiting to grasp my hand
and in his own enthusiastic way to say many very kind things of
my very faulty sermons.
Our friendship lasted up to the time of his death, covering in
all a period of nearly thirty years. When I resolved to found the
Globe Review I consulted him and a few other friends in Phila-
delphia regarding the venture. Dr. Garretson advised against it
on the ground that the field was already crowded and also on the
ground that the risks and labors were too much for any one man,
and that in fact I ought to be engaged in the very highest spheres
of teaching, without any such risks and labors. " But," said he,
" put me down for two copies regularly, if you finally conclude to
undertake the work." A few years earlier than this he had been
instrumental in persuading me to publish in book form the essays
contained in my book " Modern Idols."
Now and again, while literary editor of the Philadelphia Times,
and later in the Globe Review, I reviewed some of his literary
books with considerable severity, always, however, insisting in pub-
lic and in private that his " Oral Surgery " was a very able work
and that upon it would rest his fame.
He finally agreed with me that the book named had proved the
truth of my estimate, but was always indignant with me for so
severely handling his smaller books.
IN MEMORIAM, 255
It is due, nevertheless, to the genial kindness of his nature and
also to his good Quaker common-sense to say here that he never
allowed my strictures upon his books to interfere with the sincere
friendship that existed between us, or to modify the very exalted
estimate he held and expressed regarding my very imperfect work
in the Globe Review.
It is still further to his credit that, though holding firmly to his
own medley of philosophico-religious thought, his appreciation of
the Globe seemed to increase after its editor became a Catholic,
and letters from him then and again declared, with all the frank-
ness of long friendship, that the change had increased rather than
diminished the power of said editor's work.
Whatever I have said in disparagement of some of his own pet
books was said with all the sincerity and earnestness characteristic
of my work, and I have nothing to repent of; but we speak only
good of the dead.
Dr. Garretson was tall, considerably above the average height,
slender, straight as an arrow, inclined to baldness from early middle
life; not a handsome man, but always with a certain distinguished
air. The students of the college in which he lectured were devoted
to him, large numbers of afflicted persons who had been aided by
his skill well-nigh worshiped him, while friends and enemies alike
admitted his exceptional ability in the special line of his chosen
vocation. In the long hereafter may his soul rest in peace.
Dr. A. R. Thomas was a much less conspicuous person in his
profession and scarcely known to literature, though for many years
at the head of his college, a most kindly and capable practising
physician, and the idol of a large circle of co-workers and enthusi-
astic friends.
Dr. Thomas found me a few years later than Dr. Garretson, when
I was preaching to a "liberal" congregation in Spring Garden
Hall, Philadelphia, in the years 1868 and 1869, and was one of a
very intelligent company of people who had been drawn together
to hear what the escaped Presbyterian preacher had to say; and
from that day to the year of his death he was exceedingly kind to me
and to mine. He was never as enthusiastic in his expressions con-
cerning my work as was Dr. Garretson. In truth, he was a far less
quickly thinking man, but he was one of the handsomest, kindest,
gentlest, and most capable of all the physicians I have ever known;
256 THE GLOBE.
and it is a pleasure to me to "bear this slight testimony to this ex-
ceptionally able and faithful circle of men.
Last, but perhaps not least, and quite on other grounds than
those of friendship, I am moved to pay my farewell to the late
Superior of the Paulist Fathers, Rev. Fr. Hewitt, who took wing
for unknown heights only a few weeks ago.
I have not been kindly of late in my mention of the Paulist
Fathers. I think the fault and the provocation are with them;
but, regardless of this and regardless of any present or future action
on their part, it is my purpose never again to allow any unfratemal
word to escape my pen regarding these men; and, whether on
account of a sort of nervous superstition on my part, induced by
considerable suffering, or by a real and providential vision, the
passing of Father Hewitt is the sole and only cause that led me to
this resolve. Hence, I look upon him as a sort of angel out of whose
starward flight this resolution came; and I shall explain, even at
the risk of being abused as a lunatic — in which light I believe the
amiable and gifted editor of the Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Caslcei
is already inclined to view me.
Very early in the morning of the night of Fr. Hewitt's death I
was awakened by what we will call a very vivid dream. There was
no disturbance, no agitation in my dream, no struggle, no dis-
cussion, nor any apparent provoking feature about it at all; but
the figure of a man hooded like a monk stood at my bedside, erect,
silent, and the expression upon the face of my visitor was so cult-
ured, so refined, so pure, so kindly, so almost ineffable in its ex-
alted kindliness, that I was wakened into consciousness and a desire
to speak; but from my first vision of the visitor he seemed in the
act of passing; stood, as it were, toward the foot of my bed with
head turned slightly toward me, his arms folded in the cloak he
seemed to wear, and, though there was no word uttered by either
my visitor or myself, the language of his look was plainly and
clearly that of the kindest, almost holiest, farewell.
As I awoke the vision vanished, and while I was still puzzling
over the identity of the face during the morning hours in my
office, the morning papers brought the news that Father Hewitt
had breathed his last during that past night; when, all at once, it
came to me — why, it was Father Hewitt's face that I saw in my
dream! And from that moment I have felt a new and unusual kind-
ness toward the fraternity of which he was the honored Superior.
IN MEMORIAM. 257
I never had the honor of Father Hewitt's personal acquaintance,
but the various pictures of him that I have studied all agree in
marking him as one of the ablest and best of that group of New
England converts to the Catholic Church who founded the Paulist
brotherhood.
Having made the study of physiognomy a specialty for nearly
forty years, and having applied it to all races and grades of men of
any consequence in this world, it is easy for me to locate Father
Hewitt in the intellectual hierarchy of New England during the
last one hundred years, and, were this the time and place, it would
give me pleasure to so locate this gifted and beautiful soul. But
this is not an article in criticism; it is simply the outflowing of my
own better feelings toward an exceptional group of men, all of whom,
with the exception of the last-named, have been unusually kind
in their appreciation of the work I am at least trying to do in this
world; and the critical mood of the editor of the Globe Review
is quite other than this, though at heart no less kind and human.
It will have been seen in passing that these gentlemen — now
unseen spirits in the land of dreams — were all superior men, that
they belonged to different creeds and professions, that they were
all men of remarkable integrity and nobility of soul; and I might
be pardoned if I here 3delded to more elaborate and intense ex-
pression of my own appreciation of their invaluable friendship, now
gone forever, except as the dead in their diviner prayers may help
us still.
But I must not yield to this. I am most grateful to heaven for
the gift of such friends and still quite as grateful for the fact that,
though these have been taken, many hundreds of the appreciative
readers of the Globe Review are of the same type and quality, and
that the kind words of the living that daily reach me are as dear
to me as the memories of these honored dead.
Spite of all the sorrows, all the losses, all the bitternesses and
wrongs that have clouded my life I still doubt the truth of the
poet's words, that,
" Though much is given us here in life.
Still more is taken quite away."
In fact, when I consider the inner winnings of the soul in com-
pensation for the losses and crosses of our mortal life, and the con-
stancy of the divine economy that ever seems ready to crowd with
258 THE GLOBE.
living sunrises of glory, love, and peace the dark and vacant spaces
that the false and the dead have left us, I am inclined tQ affirm
the opposite of the poet's assertion:
" But who shall so forecast the years
And find in loss a gain to match?
Or reach a hand through time to catch
The far-off interest of tears? "
William Henry Thorn e.
MATER DEI
The air so gently kissed by fragrance holy.
The soul so stilled in bliss with fullness won,
Mater Dei I
For joy the field hath borne the flower lowly.
Now angels hymn — the coming of The Son!
0 chosen One! 0 fairest of all daughters!
So purposed ere earth's ages had begun!
Mater Dei!
0 fount of gardens! well of living waters!
Give forth thy life — the coming of The Son!
Sweet Light in gloom! of dangers all apprising —
Now hast thou Death's proud victory undone —
Mater Dei!
0 Dawn immaculate! in splendor rising —
Come strew with love — the pathway of The Son.
Bring fragrant ointments — aromatic spices.
Bring lily blooms — ere nears The Holy One —
Mater Dei!
And deck my raptured soul, as He advances,
Then — glad will be the coming of The Son.
New York. E. C. Melvin.
PURE TONE. 259
PURE TONE.
One bright April day a young friend came to me with a profound
question, unconsciously put, yet deserving profound answer.
" In one of your essays," he said, " I find this: * We love Nature
because her voice is harmonious. We are weary of jangle and go
to her in search of pure tone.' Now, I have been wondering what
this means. Please tell me more! AVhat is pure tone and how
shall we seek it? Where does the search begin? And has it an
end?''
I was glad to promise written reply; for, though every writer
knows how often hints of precious truth come to him in flashes
and glide off his pen, it is no less true that these ideas are capable
of elucidation, and it is due to the reader not to push him off into
any pale limbo of gleams or doubtfulness.
Surely the thought in question is not misty, save as we make it
so. The skillful piano-maker knows perfectly what he means by
purity of tone, in case of a fine instrument. Its every sound must
be free from jar or defect — ^this first! — ^next, it must have positive
qualities. Flatness or mediocrity will not answer; it must be clear,
sweet, and satisfactory to the musical ear, within the range of sound
it produces. It may not possess exceptional qualities of depth, rich-
ness, or glorious resonance; but the unmistakable, unalloyed ac-
curacy of crystal vibration, as of glass bells, must be had, or there
is no purity of tone.
The value, to the musician, of a rare violin, an Amati or Cre-
mona, lies in this same quality. Some mysterious combination of
shaped wood, strings, and surface varnish, ripened by age through
equally mysterious natural processes, issues in such precious mani-
festation of it, that the artist listens in breathless admiration. Nay,
he will search the world over to find this ancient miracle of wood
and strings!
In the bell-foundry equally, the one objective point is purity
of tone. The proportions of bell-metal are graduated with extreme
care, its quality scrutinized, and, if the best results be aimed at,
some admixture of gold and silver is made.
With the human voice, that most excellent of all instruments,
pure tone is eagerly sought, yet rarely compassed. Some defect
260 THE GLOBE.
or weakness, some nasal or throaty blur, impairs clearness, in a
majority of cases. But for this, our great music-schools would
produce prima-donnas.
" I rarely go to hear vocal music," remarked a sensitive music-
lover, a friend of mine, on one occasion. " It is so apt to disap-
point one! From an instrument you may get an accurate and
reasonably pure tone; but the singer is an indeterminate quantity! "
Of all but the great " stars " I fancy this is essentially true.
Impressarios search and search; yet the voice of perfectly pure
tone, through all its compass, remains a rarity. The discovery of
it usually rewards much patient effort; sometimes, becomes the
crown of a teacher's life-work.
The conscientious artist craves a similar pureness of line and
color. Purity is the manifestation of that Divine energy, wherein
and whereby all things " live and move and have their being.'' A
dead pureness is impossible. The Greek lines, the most exquisite
on earth, before whose beauty we stand tranced and breathless, are
living lines. Examine such a line — note the thoughtful progress
of its curves and its beautiful self-restraint — and you will see how
the whole is vitalized! No dead straightnesses, as of Egyptian
tombs, no passionate moon-curves of licentiousness, but the choice,
deliberate and tranquil, of precisely what is best; the result being
so brimful of Divine beauty that an added rose-leaf would overflow
its cup. In sculpture and architecture, in fresco, fire-etching, and
the work of the draftsman pure lines are essentially living lines
and revelations of Divine energy.
This is true, in principle, of mere substance. The crystal, for
example, owes what we call its purity to its highly organized com-
plexity; the gem depends upon it for direct fire and flash, its own
vivid life. Grind both to powder, and you have the same substances
still; but their vital purity is gone. In short, there is a profound
why and wherefore behind all this.
A similar truth holds as to purity of color, or what the painter
calls " pure tone." Says Ruskin: " The quality of color, which we
term purity, is dependent on the full energizing of the rays that
compose it."
" Seven the lamps, where spirits walk in white."
And the singer, declaring this, has poetized a truth. The light
of heaven is divisible, like the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As more
PURE TONE, 261
or less of this or that Divine ray is absorbed, we have the varied
spectrum. The individual glory of the great master hangs on his
choice of color; yet the masters, one and all, insist upon its purity.
Claude Lorraine dwelt on the golden quality of sunshine; Titian,
on the deep blue tones of sky, rendering these to perfection. But
none had dared to paint, or seem even to have seen its scarlet and
purple. Then came Turner, whose peculiar innovation was the
perfecting of the color chord by means of scarlet. Giorgione mas-
tered the flame tints, rendering them with translucent purity, as
if a lamp were burning behind the surface. Veronese paints his
wondrous grays, glorified by a precious touch, perhaps, of pale rose,
the very perfection of color, and Rembrandt the darkness of red
and glowing browns, with flashes of white light. Each one speaks
through his brush, as the spirit gives him utterance.
Of the violet rays, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the great
painters take delicate advantage. "The finer the eye for color,"
says Euskin, again, " the less it will require to gratify it intensely.
But that little must be supremely good and pure, as the finest notes
of a great singer which are so near to silence. And a great colorist
will make even the absence of color lovely, as the fading of the
perfect voice makes silence sacred."
The great religious painters are pre-eminent for purity of color.
They use fewer mixed hues. To express the holiness of saint or
angel they diminish shadow, that the medium of glorified ether,
wherein these are thought to dwell, may be fully indicated. More-
over, they aim at peculiar purity of line. A certain stateliness,
almost rigid, in their view, marks the dwellers of heaven — some*
thing apart from the soft, living lines of earthly significance.
Herein, also, is the stronger, loftier side of the late Burne-Jones
creations. His angels — thank Heaven! — are not the mere winged
people with pretty faces — of cheap prettiness at that — which deck
our Christmas publications. The severe lines of his handiwork,
the touch of austerity, tell another story. He gives a nineteenth-
century conception of the angelic, our own modern notion of purity.
It diverges curiously from the older types! Verily, our tone of
mind and our ideals are parted from the Fra Angelico thought by
the great divergence of centuries. That would be a nice bit of
analysis, which should show this variance accurately, tracing it
to its inner sources! For every age has its own absorption of the
Divine, chooses its own rays from out the great spectrum, in^x-
262 THE GLOBE.
haustible forevermore. There is "a rainbow round about the
Throne."
Yet the Angelico ideal remains, in its own way, unapproachable.
Its transparency of clear color, its Divine pallor of rose and sky-
blue, its gold and silver of unearthly glitter are, one and all, touches
of heaven. Much of this ideal still abides in the Catholic Church,
despite the lapse of years, and is part of her perennial charm.
Yet the world has changed in its relations to the Unchanging.
In many respects it has turned round; and the fashionable " wheel "
only typifies this! It faces west; now, not east. It has ideals of
progress, and has caught some violet rays, invisible of old. The
trained eye of the modern artist is said to see violet everywhere in
Nature, which explains the work of most Impressionists. Curiously,
too, these violet rays, marking the extreme of the solar spectrum
and making our Modern Painters " extremists " in their modes of
Art expression, are the chemical rays. Thus science touches our
ideals of color and purity, in a way never known before.
Perhaps what I said, originally, explains somewhat this change
which has passed upon our ideas. " We love Nature," I said, " be-
cause her voice is harmonious. We go to her in search of pure
tone." Now the mediaeval painter did not go to Nature, in this
earnest way. He would paint an illumined sky, now and then, and
knew its value as a background for figures; but beyond this he
would not go. He felt that it expressed the Infinite and sought no
more. Still less did he know of Science, as a mighty revealer of
God's thought.
We seem to be reaching the Divine by a new path. " The Lord,
even Jesus, who appeared to thee on the way as thou earnest," were
the opening words Ananias said to Saul, after the latter had seen
the wondrous light, and the way Saul took was his own way; so
we, on another line of journeying, may also meet the Divine, able
through these very twin rays of Science and Nature to dazzle us,
nay, fling us down with our faces to the earth!
Searching for pure tone, we find that Nature gives us much of
it. A part of the question before us is how to seek that we may
surely find. As in all quest of spiritual things, humility is requisite,
and patience. "To him that knocketh it shall be opened." It
takes patience to stand at the door and knock — and a degree of
lowliness. It is for lack of this preparation that our artists " sketch
from Nature " and merely caricature her sweetness. Not only do
PURE TONE. 263
they miss pure color, and pure tone, but in their self-sufficiency
invent atrocious combinations. Variety shows whereat we stand
aghast. Our search must begin with humility — and this remains
true whether we aim at musical or Art attainments, or at the higher
glory of sanctity.
The calm of Nature falls on our hearts. The storm and stress
of business, the jar of contention, the bustle of society are ban-
ished for a time, and in the hush we begin to feel a mighty Presence.
The Divine comes forth to meet us. From the pure, pale blue of
the overhanging sky it looks down; how steady its gaze, how soft
and tender! From the ocean's expanse it appeals to a thousand
summer flutterers along its shore; it glows in illumination of sunset
or haunts the snow-fields of the world, a-glitter with that sharp
whiteness which is God's own m^essage to the soul — and who shall
say we have not found purity, even here on earth? It is pure tone;
ours, and infinitely precious. And yet its underlying tint of rose
or violet may be a new thing, a revelation to our own age, unknown
to Dante or Angelico.
In short, the nineteenth century has its spiritual rights.
" Why believe in the saints mediaeval
And not in the saints of to-day? "
Our vision of angels may be that of Edwin Burne-Jones, yet a
pure vision. Our thought of God may come through the medium
of Nature, yet with fullest beauty of holiness. What is science but
the knowledge of Him, in His laws and eternal Kingship of the
universe? What august purity in this. His latest revelation, made
even to us — this poor, perverse generation! Perhaps the Lord, in
His mercy, thinks better of us than we dare think of ourselves.
It is as true of the modern poet, and even, to some extent, of the
modem novelist, that this recourse to Nature has become a sharp
tendency. To get at purity of expression, point, brevity, and clear-
ness is the aim of the essayist; to add thereto that inherent music
of words and syllables which Sidney Lanier so wonderfully analyzed,
is that of the poet; while the novelist strives after pure types, in
depicting character, whether national, local, or purely individual.
They know, each for himself, and feel, that purity is brilliancy. A
single beautiful creation, one superb character, like some of the
Tennysonian types, or some pure touch of Nature strongly insisted
upon, gives the best effect. Our writers really touch greatness when
VOL. VII. — 18.
264 THE GLOBE.
they grasp this. The simplicities of Nature give pure tone. Re-
versely, complicated, muddled thought, intricacies of plot, and a
multitude of wooden characters make a book a will-o'-the-wisp
quagmire or a puppet show without the quaint attractions of Punch
and Judy.
It is to the credit of our litterateurs that they seem to see this.
Without entering upon disputed points of greatness or reputation,
it is not uncommon in these days to come upon some book of the
unpretending sort or a slender collection of verse by a new writer
perhaps, or one little known to fame, which, nevertheless, shows a
soul in tone with Nature and catching her peculiar freshness as of
leafage glittering with rain, repeating her simpler types with a
purity and sweetness past gainsaying. The poems of Ina Coolbrith
and Lisette Woodworth Reese are examples in point, and the less-
known but very beautiful work of Anna Boynton Averill.
I am not sure that our artists might not take a lesson from their
cousins, the poets, greatly to their own profit, in this matter of pure
color. Loss of purity is loss of light; hence, loss of glitter, sparkle,
and radiance; hence, loss of beautiful effect. This is true of higher
art than that which goes to the making of stained glass. Tiffany's
methods and creations are suggestive in other lines; and the im-
pressionist who arrives at this notion of purity, grasping the pro-
found principle and divinity of it, is making giant strides to fame.
In a word, behind all artistic, musical, and literary composition,
as behind the success of the stage performer, stands a kind of in-
tellectual lucidity, a clearness of ideal conception, known to us
as purity of thought. The same quality, in the moral world, we
style " singleness of heart." It is more of a power than we think.
It grasps diverse elements and brings them into unity, molds masses,
groups, and individuals into a complex whole, controls in calm
dominion the countless parts of a great sonata or a Michael Angelo
fresco. Hence, wherever this clearness of mentality abounds, su-
preme greatness, moral, intellectual, or actual, is not far off.
This element, moreover, naturally wins homage from every soul
that recognizes its presence; it sways the great public, delights
choicer minds and forces admiration even from its foes. Nor is
the reason far to seek. There is a native longing in the human
heart for a purity greater than its own.
King David's cry after the heat and dust of battle was far from
any thought of kingship. " Oh, that one would give me drink of
PURE TONE. 265
the water of the well of Bethlehem! " It is the prayer of spiritual
rather than actual need; the innocence, the purity, of his boy-
hood, of his early shepherd life, sprang up before him in unutter-
able vision as he thought of those crystal waters. Is it not a similar
impulse that takes our great merchant from Chicago or St. Louis,
the scenes of his commercial victories, back again to the East, to
the farm-house home of his early days? We wonder, perhaps, to
see him buy pond-lilies or Plymouth Mayflowers from the boy who
sells them on the train. Is there no vague wish to come in touch
with what he feels to be " pure tone " in this simple act? Is it not
a " feeling after God to find Him, though He be not far from every
one of us " ?
This idea of again falling in touch with a lost purity may be
the beginning of penitence and a return to peace; the Divine energy
being a moral force, and of limitless power. As the soprano dom-
inates, so purity dominates. And that form of Christianity which
gets the most of it and gives the most of it, will get, also, the ascend-
ancy; whether it be that of the Puritan with his iceberg force of
moral principle, or Catholicism with its warm cuUus of the Blessed
Virgin.
For it calls the soul from imperfection to an ideal of sanctity —
conversely, through the mighty energizing of the Holy Spirit en-
abling the soul to answer this call. It is the summons of the ice-
peak and the snowfall, of the daisy that whitens the meadows and
the babe in its cradle. It bids the painter rehearse his vision of
angels, the musician catch their purest tones; it cries out to the
sculptor from the perfectness of ancient marbles, white as sanctity
itself; it speaks to a willing world from the manger at Bethlehem,
from the gracious Madonna and the Child Jesus.
Such is the only " pure tone " of this present world. Our search
for it is ended when we have it within ourselves. Then our souls
fall in unison with it; we perceive the beauty of holiness, and the
attuning process for us is done.
Thenceforward, its finer melody is ours; the jar of outer things
cannot perceptibly affect it; it increases and deepens and grows
upon us, its own exceeding great reward.
Gardiner, Me, Caroline D. Swan.
266 TEE GLOBE.
FROM LOWEST DEPTHS.
Temptations, like gaunt wolves, tear at my breast;
They howl and snarl and will not let me rest;
I turn and flee, but still they follow me —
Oh, God, have mercy — ^pity me!
I struggle hard, but fast as with a chain
The white wolves hold me captive, and again
They draw me back to cruel slavery —
Oh, God, have mercy — pity me I
Through the long watches of the gloom of night
I toss and moan, but still they haunt my sight;
They torture — mock my pain and misery —
Oh, God, have mercy — pity me!
For one brief hour, perchance, they fall behind;
And I, exulting, and with peace of mind.
Breathe free, when lol the pack comes hurriedly —
Oh, God, have mercy — ^pity me!
In vain — in vain! they will not leave their prey;
They follow step by step, through night and day,
Watching, if I of Hope forsaken be —
Oh, God, have mercy — pity me!
Panting, with foam-flecked mouths and burning breath,
They follow close, like vultures scenting death;
Out from the lowest depths I cry to Thee,
Oh, God, have mercy — pity me I
Boston, Henbt Cotle.
ABOUT THE HIERARCHY.
Since the issue of the last Globe information has come to me
from various sources to the effect that His Grace, the Archbishop
of New York, has been held responsible and blamed for various
ABOUT THE HIERARCHT. 267
severe criticisms of mine upon certain so-called Liberal Catholic
representatives of the American hierarchy.
I had felt and feared this, now and again, during the past two
years, but as no actual complaints bearing upon this subject had
reached me I felt that it would be gratuitous, if not presuming
upon the importance of my own words, to volunteer any explana-
tion. Now, however, an explanation seems proper, if not obligatory.
I am therefore moved to say of my own volition that His Grace,
the Archbishop of New York, has never been responsible for any
utterance of mine in this Review, on any subject whatsoever; that
he has never seen or known of any utterances in this magazine until
said utterances have reached him in the regular issues of the
Globe, when these have been sent to him as to any other regular
subscriber; and I am moved to add that any man who, after this
simple and voluntary statement of the truth, still winks his eye
or nods his head or protrudes his lips or intimates in any way or
anywhere that His Grace of New York had something to do with
Thome's . criticism of Ireland or of Keane, or of any one, simply
proves the absolute untruthfulness of his own nature and shows
thereby that he is incapable of either believing or teaching the truth
on any subject whatsoever.
I do not wonder that certain so-called Liberal American Catholic
prelates, whom I have recently isolated as among the suspects of
nineteen centuries of Catholic orthodoxy, should have suspected
and blamed His Grace of New York for certain criticisms of mine.
In the first place, in their august and insufferable conceit it would
never occur to them that a Catholic layman, so-called, could have
an exalted thought of criticism worth uttering, especially if it bore
severely on their own untutored posings and speech-makings; or
that he would dare to utter an original thought of criticism regard-
ing them, even if he should by any marvelous and miraculous in-
terposition of Providence or the devil be favored with an original
and independent thought at all.
In the next place, these same self-claimed great and liberal x\meri-
can Catholic pet representatives of Leo XIII. have done so many
injustices toward His Grace, the Archbishop of New York, that it
is the most natural thing in the world for them to suspect him of
retaliating in their own despicable and underhanded ways. It is
always the wretch who perpetrates a wrong upon another that sus-
pects his victim of similar evil.
268 THE GLOBE.
I do not pretend to champion the cause of any archbishop in
particular, and when any one of them steps out of the sphere of his
own exalted vocation into literature, sociology, temperance, politics,
or what not, I hold myself free to criticise him in these outside
spheres as freely as I criticise any other man. Moreover, I am
clearly informed by those who heard him that His Grace of St.
Paul, in a public speech delivered at the meeting of the Plenary
Council of Baltimore a few years ago, invited and welcomed free
criticism from the secular press of the country. He may not have
been aware that " a chiel was present taking notes, and, faith, would
print them." In his august self-conceit he may not have dreamed
that there was any living human being in America great enough
to expose the utter fallacy and abburdity of ninety per cent, of his
own public utterances; hence, he may not have been expecting cer-
tain Globe criticisms that during the last two years have made him
madder than a March hare. But you never can tell who is around
when you make a public speech, and it is therefore always prudent
to keep oneself within the bounds of truth and modesty.
But whatever may have been the subtle and underhanded offences
of said so-called Liberal American Catholic prelates toward His
Grace of New York or toward other prelates and persons more
gifted, pious, and orthodox than themselves, it is my opinion, based
on the information of many correspondents, that His Grace of New
York never has retaliated in that kind or in any kind or manner
unworthy the dignity and manhood and Catholic Christianity of a
great and devoted representative of the eternal Hierarchy of the
Church of Home.
In simple justice to myself I ought to say here that if there is
any prelate, priest, or man in the United States or elsewhere so
lost to all the refinements of human honor as to suppose for one
moment that I would lend or sell myself or the pages of this Review
for the purpose of giving expression to any man's revenge, or for
any other unworthy purpose, such miscreant is beneath my notice
or contempt. In a word, I hold myself and the Archbishop of New
York above any such low-bred proceeding.
In evidence of this, and in still further refutation of the sus-
picions heaped upon him by his enemies, I am moved to add here
that during the present year His Grace of New York has invited me
to a personal interview for the very purpose of suggesting that it
would be gratifying to himself and more in accord with the ideal
ABOUT THE HIERARCHT. 269
position of the faithful if I would spare the hierarchy in my crit-
icisms, or at all events to be a little less severe in these criticisms.
Of course I called his attention to the fact that the Globe Ke-
viEW is my own property, that it is a literary and in some sense a
business enterprise, and that its editor has the same rights that the
editor of any other newspaper or literary periodical has; also, that
as a matter of fact I had never originated any of these criticisms
on any member of the hierarchy, but had simply put the sensible
and senseless comments of other Catholic or Protestant editors in
new light and in new language; and that while I should give the
most earnest and respectful attention to and consideration of his
suggestion, I should very respectfully maintain my own rights as
above.
Nevertheless, in view of the fraternal, gentle, and kindly spirit
in which this suggestion was made to me by His Grace of New
York, plus the fact that the very men he would shield by his sug-
gestion are the men who have not always been just or kind to him-
self— thus giving an air of pure Christian charity to his suggestion
— ^and in view of the fact that His Grace of New York never for
a moment assumed an attitude or used the language of his own
ecclesiastical authority in this interview, but rested the force of
his suggestion on the fact that the Holy Father himself had made
such suggestion or request general, applying it to all the faithful
everywhere; and still further, in view of the fact that several faith-
ful subscribers to and friends of the Globe Eeviev7 have almost
entreated me not to carry out my purpose of reviewing a certain
pamphlet named in the last Globe as reflecting severely upon His
Grace of St. Paul, I have resolved, for the present at least, not to
review that pamphlet.
I do not abandon my purpose of writing such review, and there
is no man on earth that has a right to forbid me. I have started
three times to do it, already; but it seems to me better — more just
to myself, to the Globe, and to Archbishop Ireland — that, before
writing such a thorough and searching review as I had planned,
I should sift more carefully the truth or falsehood of the pamphlet
named — and this I have resolved to do.
This resolve, however, does not and will not prevent me from
making such comments upon any of the extra, outside, political,
or other speeches and conduct of any prelate as I may be moved
to make at any time. And while upon this subject I am moved
270 TEB GLOBE.
to offer certain criticisms upon two recent utterances and phases
of this question.
For more than two years I have been sick and weary of the fool-
ish stuff published now and again in various Catholic papers, to
the effect that Archbishop Ireland and Bishop Keane were the espe-
cial and honored pets and representatives in this country of His
Holiness, Leo XIII.; and I have been quite as sick of the fulsome
and foolish flattery heaped upon these two very mediocre men.
I have no inside information from the court of Rome. In fact,
I never have sought inside or detective information from any human
being. It has, however, been proven over and over again by au-
thoritative statements that there is no truth whatever in the baby
reports that Ireland and Keane are especial pets of the Pope, or,
especially, his trusted advisers regarding American affairs, or that
they especially represent his own ideas regarding America. In a
word, the report that these two men in any special way represent
the Pope in this country is a senseless and baseless lie.
I shall not pursue this topic as far as it has reference to any
proofs to be derived from official statement. The two parties named
are not worth such an official statement, one way or the other, and
it would be beneath the dignity of Rome or of the Pope's one and
only special representative in this country to make any such state-
ment. The parties named are not worthy of such honor.
I aim writing mainly for Americans and to a great extent for
American Catholics, though at least a good one-third of my read-
ers here and abroad are Protestants. And what I want to call the
attention of all my readers to is this: Have they ever considered
for one moment the humiliating light in which this baby report
concerning Ireland and Keane places the other and far abler and
more important members of the American Catholic hierarchy?
And if the report were true or had any semblance of truth in it,
do they not see that the fact, if it existed, would be in itself enough
to put all the American hierarchy except Ireland and Keane in
practical rebellion against the Pope of Rome?
Is the Pope — any Pope — such a fool as to do anything of this
kind? And as loyal Catholic Americans, ought we not to think
ten times before daring to put the Pope and ninety-nine per cent,
of the American hierarchy in such a ridiculous and humiliating
position? Shall we, for the sake of pandering to the noisy pride
und ambition of two comparatively insignificant prelates, put the
ABOUT TEE HIERARCHY. 271
Pope and the vast majority of the American hierarchy in such a
stupid and humiliating position? Are these two little bantam
roosters masters of all the barn-yards of the world, and the Pope
besides? A pox upon such silly humbuggery!
Again and in another light, if certain hireling, unthinking, and
light-headed American Catholic editors are not discriminating
enough to distinguish between the comparative heads and values
of the members of the American Catholic hierarchy, ought they
not still to have sufficient reverence and regard for the good judg-
ment of the Pope to know or believe that he at least was not as
stupid as themselves? In a word, does not the Pope know the
comparative value of each member of the American hierarchy?
Did he not appoint them? Has he no brains? no sources of in-
formation? no good advisers? Alas! But, thank God, he is bet-
ter informed, even on American subjects, than Ireland and Keane
and the whole bundle of their senseless and slave-like adorers. I
am speaking to the common reason and common honor of every
Catholic soul. It is not any one man, but the hierarchy as a whole,
that we are bound to honor and revere.
Let me put the matter in still another light: What have Ireland
and Keane ever said or done that should make them worthy of
especial honor either in the eyes of the Pope or of the American
people?
Their speeches on literature, politics, and faith are honeycombed
^\ith sophistry, blunders, and exaggeration. Ireland's management
of his archdiocese, as far as I can learn up to this date, partakes
very much of these same undesirable qualities. Keane's manage-
ment of the Washington Catholic University seems to have been
crowded with the same qualities; but they have both always known
the one art of popular advertising.
Barnum knew it better than they, but I arti not aware that the
Pope or the Almighty ever loved or honored him on that account.
Wanamaker knows it better than they, but even the American peo-
ple, stupid, bungling, contemptible, and contradictory as they are
in all their public declarations, have not up to date gone crazy
enough to "boom" Wanamaker as one especially favored of the
gods. Indeed, the best of them still seem inclined to think that
he is rather favored of the devil.
Why not apply the same logic to Ireland and Keane?
For more than forty years I have been studying the heads, faces.
272 THE GLOBE.
and works of the leading men of all nations, in order to determine
their comparative places in the wider hierarchy of the eternal Wal-
hallas of intellectual and moral fame, and for the last five or six
years I have been applying something of the power and knowledge
thus gained to a comparative study of the real value of certain mem-
bers of the American hierarchy. Here are a few of my conclusions;
the conclusions only. A scientific tracing of the detail of these
studies would weary the general reader and might convince the
editor of the Northwest Review and the Antigonish Casket that the
editor of the Globe Review was not a lunatic after all. But, as
I do not wish to weary my subscribers and am not at all anxious to
disabuse the gigantic intellects of the editors named, I will not go
into detail. I do my own processes of thinking and I do not ex-
pect them to follow me. But for the conclusions:
According to every light and law of physiognomy and according
to all the results of my own studies in this line; according to all
the facts that I have been able to gather concerning the entire
management of their respective dioceses during the past years; and
according to all the laws of the comparative importance of posi-
tions held in this world, any one of the archbishops of the four
leading sees in America — that is, either Archbishop Williams of
Boston, Archbishop Corrigan of New York, Archbishop Ryan of
Philadelphia, or Archbishop Feehan of Chicago, is far and away,
in every respect — mentally, morally, ecclesiastically, and officially —
an abler and a better man than Archbishop Ireland. In fact, I am
entirely satisfied that Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco is more
than the peer of Ireland and that the late Archbishop Jannsens of
New Orleans was, in every sense, vastly his superior.
By precisely the same line of studies I have reached the con-
clusion that either Bishop McGolrick of Duhith, or Bishop Spal-
ding of Peoria, or Bishop Horstman of Cleveland, or Bishop McQuaid
of Rochester, or Bishop Becker of Savannah, and I doubt not any
one of several other American bishops less particularly known to
me, is, in every way, the superior of Bishop Keane; and yet, who
ever hears of any one of these great and leading archbishops or any
one of these gifted and faithful bishops outside of the masterly and
splendid management of their own archdioceses and dioceses?
And again, I say, is the Pope a fool? Does he not know all that
I have hinted at and far more? And again, I ask, are all the mem-
bers of the American hierarchy, except Ireland and Keane, num-
skulls and nobodies?
ABOUT THE HIERARGHT. 273
Let us treat them all fairly and honorably and make no such
contemptible and invidious preferences as certain foolish Catholic
editors have made.
Let me put the matter in still another light. Mutual friends of
Ireland and the editor of the Globe Keview— and quite a few of my
subscribers are devoted to him — have said to me now and again,
" But he "—that is. His Grace of St. Paul—" has great influence
with the American Government."
Dear friends, the American Government is the great political
prize for which two great parties, equally American, and equally
stupid and selfish, are forever contending in this country.
Please remember also that Catholics, like Protestants, are vari-
ously divided between these two great parties — a vast majority of
the Catholics, however, in all probability, favoring the Democratic
party; but, as far as I know, Ireland is the first American areh-
bishop who has determined to ignore all prudence, all common-
sense, and all ecclesiastical self-respect to the extent of dropping
to the low level of a common ward politician by writing and gen-
erally proclaiming himself a partisan politician. And as he took
this step last year, and thereby still further ventilated his lack of
all proper sense of the dignity of his high position, and at the same
time ventilated alike his lack of knowledge and his inability of
sound reasoning on the political questions under dispute in this
nation, there is every reason to suppose that he had some desperate
end to gain by dragging his purple in the gutter of partisan politics
and flying in the face of a vast majority of the Catholics of America.
It is now generally understood that he had set his soul upon
getting the attorney-generalship, and that for purposes which I am
not now willing to name; in a word, that he sold himself and
bartered his high vocation in order to get from an already pur-
chased administration a bargain that may at last corrupt one of
the chief fountains of supposed justice in this land, and hence lead
to Ireland^s own eternal disgrace.
This may be good personal diplomacy, but I call it the absolute
negation of all high principle, of all dignity, of all Christianity,
and an insult to the majesty of the hierarchy of America.
In conclusion let me press the comparison between Ireland and
his brethren of the American hierarchy a little closer.
Does any sane man, Protestant or Catholic, imagine for a mo-
ment that, if by any fit of senseless forgetfulncss of his high posi-
274 THE GLOBE,
tion, any one of the four leading archbishops named could be in-
duced to play the partisan politician in the same way that Ireland
played it last year, he could not get more than Ireland has gotten
out of any administration so favored?
But which one of them would barter the Almighty for an
attorney-generalship? Which one of them could so far forget the
majesty of his vocation as to smirch it in the dust in order to serve
Major McKinley and the plutocrat scoundrels^ who, by every form
of misrepresentation and the base use of money, purchased and se-
cured his position as President of the United States? Not one of
them.
Thank God we cannot conceive that any one of them would dare
to presume to think of doing such a thing, and I do not believe that
any one of them could ever be induced seriously to consider the
doing of such a thing.
Again, does any sane man, Protestant or CathoUc, imagine for
a moment that any one of the archbishops named, or any other
prelate in the United States, is less loyal to or in sympathy with
whatever is true and noble in American life and history than
Ireland is?
On the contrary, they know that they can serve their country
best by serving God and His Church first and never stooping to
any partisan, foolish, or dishonorable act at all.
Finally, if the editor of the Antigonish Casket or the editor of
any other small shred of a Catholic newspaper chooses in his
momentary madness to call this " Thorneism," I tell him simply
that it is the eternal truth of God, upon which all that is stable
and noble and worthy in the political, moral, and religious civiliza-
tion of the ages has been built and must be built to the end of time.
And I appeal to the enlightened consciences of the Catholics of the
world, lay and clerical, to uphold me in these discriminations, which
are at once Catholic and divine.
The ground taken in this article is that, while in deference to
the kind suggestion of the Archbishop of New York it is my pur-
pose to refrain from criticising the American hierarchy in the
future, as far as I can do this in accordance with my own sense of
duty as a reviewer and critic of the public works and actions of
public men, I distinctly and emphatically exclude the Archbishop
of St. Paul, Minn., from this exemption, and for the following lucid
reasons:
THE OLD ROAD. 275
(a) Because His Grace of St. Paul insists upon disporting himself
before the public in a manner, to my mind, utterly unbecoming
the dignity and solemnity of his office, by making repeated speeches
and writing letters for the public press — which letters and speeches
I believe to be subversive of the principles of all true religion and
civilization, (b) Because, as indicated in this article, he has pub-
licly invited and welcomed such public criticism of the hierarchy in
general and of himself in particular. In a word, I mean to give him
what he has asked for and to give it to him straight and strong,
until, of sheer good sense and religious reason, he makes it clear
that he has amended his ways.
William Henry Thorne.
THE OLD ROAD.
The old, disused, greenswardcd road
Which lay beyond the farm-house door,
How with a magic light it glowed
In days that are no more!
Its bordering walls, with briers o'ergrown,
By rustic labor rudely piled.
Were giant battlements of stone
To me, a gamesome child.
Its plum-tree was a castle fair.
Its brook a river, broad and free;
And every bush a covert where ■
Some savage foe might be.
And far away a palace-wall
Upreared its splendors to the skies;
A poplar, silver-leaved and tall.
It seemed to other eyes.
Since those bright hours, in many a clime
I've toiled and walked o'er many a strand.
As, ceaseless, through the glass of Time,
Has coursed the silent sand.
But were there stretched before my ken
The earth's expanse of land and sea,
'Twere not so large a world as then
Was that old road to me.
276 THE GLOBE.
AARON BURR IN MISSISSIPPI.
In April of 1805, immediately after Burr's duel with Hamilton,
a trip to some remote region seemed the most advisable course for
the Vice-President. The French possessions on the Mexican Gulf,
lately acquired by the Union, seemed a definite and interesting goal,
the more because Burr's widely scattered adherents in this region
and in the West asserted themselves with renewed stanchness at
the injustice done the dueling code in the arraignment of Aaron
Burr.
The support of these people was no doubt the primary suggestion
of the intangible Mexican conquest. One thing is certain. Burr
started on his first trip through the Southwest full of legitimate
speculations, such as land investments, canal building round the
Falls of Ohio, and political influence in the West equal to that
which had passed from him in the East. His voyage, which was a
quick one for those days, was one continued ovation. At Foit
Massanac, near St. Louis, he called upon General Wilkison, here
stationed at his headquarters. The general, as one of Burr's in-
timates, was hand in glove in all the latter's quickly evolved and
just as rapidly executed plans. He was also the last to bid God-
speed to the great organizer on his memorable Southern voyage.
Once in Natchez, Burr, who was famous from boyhood for his
gallantry, brilliancy, and irresistible attractions, found his pictures
and busts household gods, and his welcome of a kind that intoxi-
cated. He was received everywhere as the Vice-President, by men
who had fought his political battles with all the ardor of a per-
sonal cause, and by women who loved him for his soft eyes, his
bravery, and courtly ways, as women will love such men to the end
of the world. Burr received this homage naturally as a monarch,
but while overwhelmed with the social attention he loved, his alert
brain was absorbing all available information and shaping huge
conquests for Theodosia, his daughter, and "little Gampy," his
grandson. His journey was so rapid as to suggest the compre-
hensive impression of a bird's-eye view, the southern boundary of
which was New Orleans.
At this place, with a letter of introduction from General Wilki-
son to Daniel Clark, who was commander of city troops and the
AARON BURR IN MISSISSIPPI. 277
wealthiest citizen in New Orleans, Burr was in a position to open
important negotiations. He lost no time in acquainting himself
with the resources of the country and the city proper, over which
theorists supposed he would enthrone himself as monarch, aided by
the female loveliness and remarkable mind of his daughter Theo-
dosia. Never failing to ingratiate himself with a power to whose
influence he accorded full value — namely, women — he called upon
and won the kindly feeling, interest, and prayers of the Ursuline
nuns, keeping ever before him Mexico and the vast ramifying hold
of the religious orders in all Catholic countries. In addition to this,
he confided enough to Daniel Clark to enlist his enthusiasm, and,
according to Matthew L. Davis, Burr's chosen biographer, induced
Clark to pledge himself to advance fifty thousand dollars, besides
making two voyages to Vera Cruz in the capacity of a spy.
Suit's vague enterprise was now breathing itself heavily into life,
while its indefatigable agitator sped back to Natchez, unluckily in
the midst of the Kemper Brothers trouble. At the moment this
affair was little more than an incident showing the direction of the
wind, but later it proved a very formidable cog in the wheel of the
Vice-President's fortunes. From Natchez he pushed on through
bogs and swamps, over swollen streams, and under a broiling August
sun, back to Nashville, thence to Pittsburg for the necessary .sup-
plies to carry out his purposes. In the meantime Wilkison, who
had been ordered to the Natchez post, began to dwell uneasily on
the consequences of Burr's movements and his own connection
therewith. The Spanish and the Kemper Brothers difiiculty offered
a pretext for denouncing Burr, and at this particular moment
Swartout's delivery of his leader's letters shocked vacillating Wilki-
son into hostile action. Convinced that prompt measures were
Burr's only checkmates, and to save himself, he deserted his con-
federate and branded him forever as a man forsworn to his country
throughout the length and breadth of the land.
Was Wilkison true to the Union? Perhaps — even so — in a clumsy
fashion, for that region, the possession of which cost the whole con-
tinent such wild alarm, was but saved to Mexico thirty years longer,
when Houston, Taylor, Johnston, and Quitman won for the Union
that same disputed boundary.
So much for General Wilkison and his action in this instance.
Early in January of 1807, one of the coldest winters ever known
to the South, winds swept down the length of the Mississippi River
278 THE GLOBE.
with all the strength of wintry blasts rushing through mountain
ravines. One of those mornings, when river-damp sharpened the
bitter cold of dawn, Aaron Burr, with five hundred men, terrified
the already panic-stricken Mississippians by casting anchor on the
Louisiana side, at the mouth of Cole's Creek.
According to his biographers, that first trip crystallized Burr's
plans into one of two, as circumstances should permit; either the
conquest of Mexico or the settlement of the Ouchitta lands. Now
was to come the test. Oblivious of Wilkison's desertion. Burr must
have sustained a paralyzing shock at finding his way suddenly
blocked by almost insuperable obstacles, especially after a voyage
which, outside its practical purpose, was one long dream of victory
and self-glorification. The late Vice-President suddenly found
himself hemmed in on all sides. Acting-Governor Mead had de-
spatched troops up the country to intercept the approaching enemy,
charge him with high treason, and demand his unconditional sur-
render. But it required more than this spasmodic enterprise to
confuse a man of Burr's expedients. All these preparations and
open alarms he met with the large-eyed candor and innocence of a
child. He walked calmly into the judicial arms and gave a highly
satisfactory account of himself, forswearing anything more than
the lawful settlement of his Ouchitta lands, to which great quan-
tities of agricultural implements gave distinct color. However,
Burr himself was held in durance like a highwayman on a five-
thousand dollar bond furnished by Colonel Benijah Osman and
Lyman Harding. His vessels were brought to Natchez and his men
discharged on parole.
Now came the question of trial.
George Poindexter, Attorney-General, was of the opinion that
the Supreme Court established by the Legislature of the Territory
was not empowered to try such cases as Burr's. Nevertheless the
trial came off, the result of which Attorney Poindexter here an-
nounces to Cowles Mead, governor:
" Burr is acquitted of high treason, and held to bail for misde-
meanor, to be tried in Ohio, also Blennerhassett."
Public excitement had been worked up to fever heat by the arrest,
and, if possible, was increased by the verdict. The President, whose
seat in the chair was due to Burr's untiring labor and diplomacy,
was bitterly denounced for jealousy and ingratitude. Cowles Mead
AARON BURR IN MISSISSIPPI. 279
likewise received his full share of condemnation. Many citizens of
Natchez showed Burr marked favor and entertained profusely in
his honor, while in the general public, partisanship ran so high that
the governor issued warrants for the arrest of all disaffected persons
about Natchez. The execution of these orders was so ill-conducted
that a hundred gallant (?) men surrounded General Adair's hotel
and bravely took that officer — who was at the dinner-table — as one
of Burr's adherents. This state of things subsided for a while, and
Burr, with his remarkable faculty for singling out pleasures even
in the midst of gravest concerns, now occupied himself with love
dalliance.
On Halfway Hill, between the residences of the Vice-President's
two friends. Colonel Osman and Mr. Harding, a picturesque arbor
of vines formed a connecting link. Midway of the path stood the
home of Madame M , a Virginia lady of high standing, a widow
and a Catholic. This house was the meeting-place of Burr and the
Abbe Viel, a learned Jesuit priest in the interest of the Mexican
project. What the result of the consultation was, from a political
point of view, is so far unknown, but other and undreamed of con-
sequences ensued to the many years' heart-ache of a tender girl
who crossed the conqueror's path. The daughter of Madame M
was her only wealth, but so rare a possession was she that her
Madonna-like loveliness exceeded incomparably any jewels or lands.
Her marvelous fairness was famed throughout the valley of the
Mississippi. All the proud young landholders of the country about
sought her hand, but in her gentle truth and virtue she declined
marriage where her heart was indifferently disposed. At this stage
Burr made his appearance in Natchez, and during his visits at
Madame M 's house it is not even supposable that Madeline's
great attractions could long escape the trained and amorous eyes
of such a guest.
Each day the girl further fascinated him. Strolling back and
forth through that leafy pathway, planning some means of egress
from present difficulties and ultimate success through ensuing ones,
Burr's faithful fancy wandered for once from the magnet of his
life — from his daughter Theodosia. For this time only was her
influence dulled by the now absorbing form of Madeline. Fast
crowding hours but increased his infatuation, while his girl-love,
with joyous soul, at last surrendered — gladly yielded — to the
courtier, statesman, and lover, all the devoted passion and admira-
VOL. VII.— 19.
280 THE GLOBE.
tion of the pure young heart, heretofore so sacredly guarded. Made-
line had found her mate.
To the mother and her daughter Burr was incomparable. They
worshiped as only the good and trusting can. His eyes were the
searchlights as well as the loadstars of their souls. Woman-like,
they gathered and loved the memories of his triumphs. Every
period of his life, from boyhood to this time, had been one series
of victories. Fresh in their recollection was the daring and reck-
less bravery of the unconquerable boy-colonel, the fast succeeding
honors up to his present office of Vice-President, and for him, who
was incapable of failure, there was but the last, the only exalted
position left, that of the presidency or the throne.
Thus they believed in him.
How women idealize and idolize!
All during this romantic love-making the Vice-President never
once lost sight of his own uncertain situation. His sworn friends.
Colonel Osman, Harding, and others, consulted together on the
last day of grace, and decided that Burr must forfeit his bond and
depart that night rather than risk the prejudiced trial by higher
court. Burr accordingly made hurried preparations for flight. He
passed by the house on Halfway Hill, though time pressed fearfully.
Constrained by the exigencies of the case, he prayed and implored
the fair Madeline to accompany him. Marriage at the first station,
every argument known to love and his facile tongue, were brought
to bear on the mother and her daughter; wealth, travel, and even
an empress honors were promised, but though the girl clung to
him with all the strength of her enamored heart, she refused, abso-
lutely and without condition. All night long Burr pleaded and
urged, but the requirements of propriety and virtue were stronger in
her breast than the urgings of passion. The first streak of day
warned the lover to tear himself away without having won a single
cojicession. Despairing of changing the girl's purpose, he exacted
the faith of the heart-stricken Madeline, promised to return and
wed her with all love, and galloped away in the fast-clearing gloom
before sunrise.
With this night ended Burr's adventures in Mississippi. What-
ever his faults, his besetting one — if fault some think it — was his
too great love for that fairest thing in life — fair women. But as
Burr loved women, the passion was a noble one; for no man could
be wholly or even markedly bad whose life was as ever faithful to
FOREGLEAMS— SONNETS. 281
a daughter as Aaron Burr's was to his Theodosia. Looking back
at this late day, it is cruel to remember the world's hard cuts, the
extreme bitterness of utter humiliation, suffered by such a man
as this during his captivity in France. It is harder still to reconcile
his absorbing devotion to Theodosia and " Gampy," and the almost
sublime acceptance of his downfall, with the violent denunciations
of his enemies. After years of princely living, when in France,
sunk to the direst poverty and starvation, through all his mis-
fortunes, he clung to, cherished, and saved a little watch and other
trinkets for his child and grandchild. These things meant food
and comfort to the captive for a time; but no, he suffered any-
thing, hugged any sacrifice, rather than forego the sweetness of
giving pleasure to those who had grown into his very heart. Here,
too, it was that, alone, forsaken, hopeless of freedom, he wrote
Madeline, releasing her from her troth.
Tell me this man's heart could be wholly wrong! Impossible.
Had not his love-lingering in Natchez kept him so long he might
have escaped Perkins, Joined, and fired to action, the clamoring
Floridians. He might have freed them from the " hated " Spanish
rule and accomplished at least part of his original undertaking,
or been slain in the attempt. How much better that last, than thirty
years' utter humiliation, social ostracism, and maddening, soul-
eating hopes which must have torn his unjrielding spirit to the
eightieth year of his age!
Canton, Miss. Lucy Semmes Orkick.
FOREGLEAMS— SONNETS.
GOD'S TEMPLES.
I wandered where God's temples used to rise;
Where songs seraphic rose upon the air.
And found but broken arches, everywhere.
And death-like stillness under leaden skies.
Tears came unbidden to my wondering eyes;
But while I wept the birds sang, and sweet, fair
Flow'rs wreathed the archways man had left so bare,
And new hopes filled me with their glad surprise.
282 THE GLOBE.
His light, I said, in moving east to west,
Leaves many a clouded and forsaken spot.
Where, henceforth, only flowers and birds may nest —
Where silence covers many a darkened blot;
But farther hence His temples aye arise,
And everywhere man offers sacrifice.
THE NATURAL-SUPERNATUEAL.
They say that there is a natural life.
And a supernatural life, that tends
To mold the natural — that darkly blends
Atoms, thoughts, worlds in their immortal strife;
That war and bloodshed and the sharpest knife
Of hate and storm and pestilence, all wend
Their daily round of death but to defend
And bind these two twin-stars as man and wife.
My fancy tells me that but one life dwells
In all the universe — that the flowers.
The stars, and demons, in the deepest hells
Of everlasting darkness, all their powers
Derive from this one life, which life is love —
Wronged and outraged, but supreme while ages moye.
OUR SLAVES OF FORM.
They tell me that my Shakespeare could not make
Sonnets — that only Petrarch knew the way;
And now, such petty slaves of form have sway;
But when at length the silver morn shall break,
And all the song-birds of the day shall wake
To music on their starward, kingly way,
And night to night shall whisper song and say
That love and light their own sweet rhymes may make,
I fancy that the Bard of Avon may
Aye still lead the heavenly choir sublime.
And that our youngsters, lame and far astray,
As cripples 'long the corridors of time.
May ask for crutches of our William then,
And beg some inspiration from his pen.
F0REGLEAM8— SONNETS. 283
LOVE AND DUTY.
There are but two words in our mother tongue
Which, as seems to me, never will grow old;
Strange mixtures of the vowels and those bold
And bristling consonants — so harshly flung
Into our English speech — as it were strung
On wires and daggers that the gods of gold
And war and bitter wrongs — a millionfold —
Might murder all the songs that have been sung.
Two words, that from eternity have fled,
And to the last eternity shall fly.
When war and wrong and hate to death have sped —
Words — which as God — can never, never die —
We call them love and duty here below.
But in the skies — the heart's own overflow.
THE FOUNTAINS OLD.
When the meadows and hills stretch green in spring
And myriads of trees don their brown and gold.
And the blessed flowers, so brave and bold,
And the little birds in their wooings sing,
And mate unto mate, filled with love, doth cling,
And countless beauties all the world enfold.
Under arching skies with their tales untold —
All voices and sounds with Thy praises ring.
But when in deep darkness the world is cold.
And life is shrouded in graves that are bare.
And voices of God that, a millionfold.
Held our hearts to life in the springlike air.
Are silent, and Calvary meets us there —
God! hast Thou forsaken the fountains old?
THE HILLS OF MORN.
God's thunders rolling through the arching skies;
His rose-tints, touching all the hills of morn;
His sunlight, illumining our lips of scorn;
His lightnings flashing in our thankless eyes;
284 THE GLOBE,
nis sunsets crowned, as when a monarch dies;
The wide world swept to death by driving storm;
The anguish of the race since time was born —
Are these not yet effective, full replies
Unto thy atheism, oh! weak man? —
Then read the mystery of that God-like soul
Whose depths of love no mortal yet can scan.
And learn of Him, that only love's control
Of all the universe — seen and unseen —
Hath kept from hell, thee, and thy petty spleen.
PLATO— LIMITED.
Men told me that in Plato there was light,
And hence I searched, if, perchance, I might find
The treasure souls have sought time out of mind;
And found — the same old oft-told dreams of night —
A web-like maze of ideas, in which might
Dwell peace and light, if men would cease to grind
Their fellow-men, would cease to bleed and bind
Their own souls, and, in some way, learn the right.
Here our Plato stops, never having learned.
It seems, that the power to pursue the true;
The will to choose and live it, were quite burned.
When death's first conflagration overblew
The world, that not ideas, but love, so spurned:
Love unto death must save the chosen few.
CRADLE DREAMS.
As when a novice fainly would express
The thoughts of God are simple to the soul
That, by its watchings, vigils, and distress,
Has traversed all the depths from pole to pole —
The stiffened verbiage from any press —
Refined, aesthetic, or the pious dole
That formal poets, fearful of excess,
Would sing — seems but cradle dreams — not the whole
Of human song; and to these I confess
That their four-squared melodies do not roll
FOREGLEAMS— SONNETS. 285
As rolls the sunlight through the wilderness;
Nor as love's living music — sans control.
In truth, that they are simply slaves forlorn,
Scarce worthy of the Master's kindly scorn.
NEVER A NOTE OF MUSIC.
They tell me there is music in the sea,
And I've listened, where countless miles of sand
Have caught the crested, rolling waves in hand
And heart and ears of fond expectancy —
Where love, seraphic, longed in ecstasy
For music — where gaunt rocks, bold, rugged, grand,
Have stood for centuries, as they were planned
Of God to play the old sea's symphony.
I've heard the great waves sighing night and day;
In mid-ocean, on sand and rock-bound shore,
I've heard the highest, whitest crests at play
In dull monotony f orevermore —
Never a note of music, but refrain
Of death and moaning, as of deathless pain.
CONCEETE SUNSHINE.
A ray of concrete sunshine flies afar,
And all along the rosy tints of morn
The face of God, that shone e'er time was born,
Outsplendors every faint and fading star.
Until the universe, being light, each bar
Of haggard darkness and each biting scorn
And hate and lust, and piercing, rankling thorn
Of anguish dies in love's victorious war.
So shines the glowing face of love, so rings
Its deep melodious music through the skies;
So rolls its radiance o'er life's shoreless sea.
Till all the limitless creation sings.
And every hate in hate's own Master dies,
While love and song reign to eternity.
William Henry Thobne.
286 THE GLOBE.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND.
In no part of the kingdom has the "Tudor settlement of re-
ligion " proved a more utter and disastrous failure than in Ireland;
while it must be conceded, that in England, during the last fifty
years, the semi-Catholic leaven, cryptic since the so-called Refor-
mation, in some of the great centers of learning and in the hearts
of numbers of the people,* has manifested itself in the modern
Oxford revival, with the results of both powerfully strengthening
the Catholic body, by the passing over to it of the most clear-headed
of the Tractarian leaders, sufficiently courageous to follow their
opinions to their only logical conclusions; and of drawing the af-
fection and respect of many of the most learned and devout of the
nation to Anglicanism; in measure, as it has been palpably lifted up
toward the ancient faith, and has advanced, on the whole, toward
Caiholic doctrine and practice.
On the other hand, during the same period, the Elizabethan es-
tablishment in the sister kingdom has gone to its grave, " unwept,
unhonored, and unsung," having borne but the Dead Sea fruit
of Puritan bitterness, and leaving behind it but the painful mem-
ories of a narrow and blighting sectarian ascendancy, the temporar}^
triumph of material power over deep spiritual realities; its brief
course and ephemeral nature betraying its earthly origin, not of
God but of man.
The disturbed state of Ireland, during the period of the so-called
Reformation, was a& much due in reality to the English rulers as
to the unstable nature of the people. " To Ireland," says Mr.
Froude, " belongs, among its other misfortunes, the credit of hav-
ing first given birth to absentees, the descendants of the first in-
vaders preferring to regard their inheritance, not as a theater of
duty on which to reside, but as a possession which they might farm
for their individual advantage. They managed their properties by
agents, as sources of revenue, leasing them even among the Irish
themselves; and the tenantry, deprived of the supporting presence
* Cardinal Manning says " that it is a saying* in the North, that as
the Catholic religion was the first, so it will be the last in England."
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 287
of their lords and governed only by a mercenary spirit, transferred
back their allegiance."
Henry VIII., who, whatever his faults, was a statesman, saw the
terrible danger of this evil, and in 1536 passed an act, which, after
declaring " that it is notorious that this the king's land of Ireland,
heretofore being inhabited and in due obedience and subjection
unto the king's most noble progenitors, hath principally grown
unto ruin, dissolution, rebellion, and decay, by occasion that great
dominions, lands, and possessions within the same, as well by
the king's grants as by course of inheritance and otherwise, have
descended to noblemen of the realm of England, who having the
same, demouring within the said realm of England, taking the
profits of their said lands and possessions for a season, without
provision making for any defense or keeping thereof in good order,"
it was enacted, that for the future the estates of all absentee pro-
prietors were forfeited and their right and title gone. On the
other hand, the descendants of some of the great Norman advent-
urers— the Geraldines, the Butlers, the De Burghs, the De Veres,
now known as McSweenies — had carved out for themselves semi-
independent principalities, in which they maintained great feudal
state, and unhampered, as in England, by the Crown and the grow-
ing power of the Commons, passed their time in war and plunder,*
assuming the role of wild and independent sovereigns, by intrigues
and alliances with the native chiefs, they kept alive, for their own
advantage, every hatred and local strife. In England, before the
so-called Keformation, the last consideration of a noble-minded
man was his personal gain. Ireland was made a theater for a uni-
versal scramble of selfishness.
No wonder the people, bred in an atmosphere of chronic war and
hostility, developed qualities incompatible with peaceful progress —
impatience of control, preference for disorder, a determination in
each individual man to go his own way, whether it was a good way
or a bad way, and a hatred of settled industry. Their raids were
celebrated in the verses of their native bards and musicians in the
exaggerated style with which poets of every- nation, and the Irish
in particular, have delighted to throw a false veil over the awful
realities of war and paint its terrible scenes as the most honorable
occupations of heroic natures; and it must be acknowledged that
* Froude.
288 THE GLOBE.
this unsettled and precarious existence had a fatal fascination for
the weaker side of the Irish nature, " in which faults and graces
are so curiously mingled, in which extravagance and generosity, im-
providence and unselfishness, anarchy and liberty, are so marvel-
ously interwoven." * Whoever was responsible, it is clear that the
state of Ireland, as regards the great mass of the people, waa one
of oppression, misery, and wrong. Henry VIII. clearly recognized
the disgrace which the maladministration of Ireland reflected on
his throne, and it must be confessed that his instructions to Surrey,
appointed Deputy in 1520, " were wise, just, and generous." f
" We think it expedient," he wrote, " that when ye shall call the
Lords and other captains of that our land before you, as of good
congruence ye must needs do, after and amongst other overtures by
your wisdom then to be made, shall declare unto them the great
decay, ruin, and desolation of that commodious and fertile land
for lack of politic government and good justice: which can never
be brought in order unless the unbridled sensualities of insolent
folk be brought under the rule of the laws. For realms without
justice be but tyrannies and robberies more consonant to beastly
appetites than to the laudable life of reasonable creatures. And
whereas willfulness doth reign by strength without law or justice,
there is no distinction of propriety in dominion, nor yet any man
say, * this is mine,' but by strength the weaker is subdued and op-
pressed, which is contrary to all laws both of God and man." Had
such ideas as these been enforced with strength and impartiality
in a firm but conciliatory spirit, in the course of a hundred years
Ireland would have been as tranquil and prosperous as Kent. But
unfortunately Henry was about to add fuel to the flames. Nothing
can be clearer than that his fatal breach with Rome has powerfully
contributed to delay and still increases the difficulty of any real
settlement of the Irish question. No direr harvest of his sacrifice
of conscience to passion has been reaped than the persistent and
bitter spirit with which religious divisions have accentuated the
estrangement of the sister kingdom — a strife purposeless and sui-
cidal to both, in which, on the one hand, a true policy of union and
a false religion; on the other, a true religion and a false policy of
isolation, have been intertwined with diabolical ingenuity, like the
deadly grasp of a cobra.
♦Froude. t Ibid.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 289
The very eve of Henry's open profession of schism, Ireland had
been convulsed by a furious revolt of the Geraldines, and the Arch-
bishop of Dublin, an Englishman, John Allen, had been slain in
cold blood. He had been one of Wolsey's instruments in procur-
ing the dissolution of forty of the lesser monasteries. Of this man
Godwin,* in his " Annales," says " that all who had a hand in that
dissolution came to ill ends. Two of them fought a duel, one was
killed, another hanged, a third threw himself headlong into a well,
a fourth, though a rich man, came afterward to beg his bread, Wol-
sey.was cast out of the King's favor and died miserably; and the
Pope who gave his consent to the dissolution lived to see Rome
taken and plundered by the Imperial army, himself and his car-
dinals made prisoners, and become the sport and mockery of the
licentious multitude."
The first of the Anglican school, connected with the so-called
Reformation that appeared in Ireland, w^as a certain George Brown,
formerly an Austin Friar in London, and Provincial of that order
in England. He had been Cranmer's private secretary and had gone
with the king and Cromwell in the monastic confiscations and su-
premacy questions. The royal assent to his election was given on
March 12, 1535.
The King's mandate for his consecration was issued on the fol-
lowing day, and the ceremony was performed on the 19th of the
same month, in schism and without bulls by the Primate, assisted
by Hilsey of Rochester and Shaxton of Salisbury.
On the 23d a writ was issued to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
lestoring Brown his temporalities, and another writ to the Escheator
of the County of Stafford, to restore him such revenues of his see
as lay within his jurisdiction; the Archbishops of Dublin being
Deans of the free Chapel of Pencris.
After loitering for more than a year in London, he arrived in
his episcopal city on July 15, 1536. He found himself sur-
rounded in Dublin by members of the Irish Council, nearly all of
whom were hostile to him; some of his clergy headed the opposi-
tion to the innovations he had been instructed to introduce. Canon
* Francis Godwin, educated at Christ Church, Oxford, Sub-Dean of
Exeter 1587, Bishop of Llandaff 1601, translated to Hereford 1617. Died
1633. Author of " Catalogue of the Bishops of England," " Rerum
Anglicanum Annales," and a fanciful story, " The Man in the Moon; or,
a Discourse of a Voyage Thither," by Domingo Gonsales.
290 THE OLOBB.
Dixon says, " the bitterest opponents of Archbishop Brown were
among his own Chapter and the Prelate who presided over the
Diocese of Meath. Humfreys, a Prebendary of S. Patrick and In-
cumbent of Sowens in Dublin, with scorn refused to read a new
order of Bidding prayer which Dr. Brown had put forth, and when
a more pliant priest went into the pulpit, Humfreys set the choir
to sing him down. Brown put Humfreys in prison for this action.
Staples, the Bishop of Meath, was the most formidable antagonist
that Brown had to battle against. ... In a sermon at Christ
Church, Dr. Staples inveighed against Archbishop Brown, in ...the
presence of the Royal Commissioners and the Council; and again, in
Jiilmainham Church, where Brown himself was in the congrega-
tion. Staples called him a heretic and a beggar, '' and raged against
him with such a stomach that the three-mouthed Cerberus of hell
could not have uttered it more vituperously." Brown retorted by
accusing Staples of divers irregularities. On September 29,
153G, Brown wrote to Cromwell " that he had endeavored, almost
to the hazard of his life, to reduce the nobility and gentry of Ire-
land to due obedience in owning the king their supreme head, as
well spiritual as temporal, but that he was much oppressed therein,
especially by Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, who had laid a curse
on the people whoever should own the King's supremacy; and had
thereby drawn to him the most of his suffragans and clergy within
his jurisdiction. That the Archbishop and priests of Armagh had
sent two messengers to Rome, and that it was feared O'Neill would
be ordered by the Pope to oppose the changes. ... He ad-
vised the calling of a Parliament to pass the supremacy by act, for
that the people did not much mind the King's Commission." Like
the majority of the apostate Catholic clergy mixed up with the
so-called Reformation, Brown's character was shady in the extreme.
His drunkenness and immorality were notorious; even Henry se-
verely rebuked him, and his old friend and patron, Cranmer, gently
remonstrated at first and subsequently told him " he was a wicked,
bad Priest who would bring disgrace upon the Reformation." *
The whole Irish nation rejected, with absolute unanimity, the
schism of Henry, with all its scandalous surroundings.
" Since my coming over here," wroio: Archbishop Brown, in
January, 1538, " I have been unable, even in the Diocese of Dub-
* Burke's Historical Portraits.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 291
lin, to induce any, either religious or secular, to preach the Word
of God or the King's just title as Supreme Head over the Church.
. . . They that then could, and would very often, even until
the right Christians were weary of them, preach after the old sort
and fashion, will now not once open their lips in any pulpit for the
manifestation of the same, but in corners and in such company as
them liketh, they can full earnestly utter their opinions. . . .
The observants are worse than all the others, for I can make them
neither swear nor preach among us. This comes from the extreme
handling my Lord Deputy hath used toward me, what by often im-
prisonment and expelling me from my own house, keeping there
no hospitality at all, and so contemptuously vilify me, that I take
God to record, I had, but that hope comforteth me, rather forsake
all those to abide so many ignominious reproaches." *
In another report Brown characterizes the English of the Pale
" as Papists as obstinate as the wild Irish themselves.^' t
On the 30th of March of the same year (1538), in another letter
to Cromwell, Brown reports, " that several of the clergy within his
own jurisdiction had forsaken their livings rather than comply with
the changes, and that he kept them vacant until the King's pleas-
ure was known." He acquaints him, that the relics and images of
both his cathedrals took off the common people from the true wor-
ship, but that the Prior and Dean found them so sweet for their
own profit, that they took no notice of his commands. He desired
a more explicit order for their removal, and that the chief Govern-
ors may be obliged to assist him in it. He informs him that the
Prior and Dean had written to Eome to be encouraged, and showed
the danger of delaying the work until such mandate arrived. He
complains that the Duke of Norfolk had combined with the Arch-
bishop of Armagh and the clergy to obstruct the King in making
any alterations in Ireland. No more unfortunate selection could
have been made than this protege of Cranmer's, to inaugurate the
Protestant religion in Ireland. His disreputable conduct deprived
him of all moral influence. Both the English settlers and the native
Irish were opposed to Henry's breach with Rome and could hardly
be expected to accept as a desirable guide in faith and morals a
religion the first apostle of which was a Prelate notoriously addicted
*The Archbishop of Dublin to Cromwell, January 8, 1538.
t Burke.
292 THE OLOBE.
to drink, witli a wife and two mistresses. In the report of a Com-
mission of Enquiry on Irish affairs, issued in 1538, Brown's clergy
are accused of irregularity, extortion, and immorality.
During Edward's brief rei^n, the religious innovations in lull
swing in England were intruded on Ireland, solely by the authority
of a King's letter in Council. The order for the new service was
dated February 6, 1550. It was first observed in Christ Church,
Dublin, Easter Day, in the presence of the Lord Deputy St. Leger,
Archbishop Brown, and the Mayor and Bailiffs of Dublin. Brown
removed all relics and images out of the two cathedrals in Dublin,
and out of the rest of the churches within his Diocese, in their
room placing the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the ten command-
ments in gilded frames. Archbishop Dowdal of Armagh, who op-
posed, was deprived, and Brown obtained letters patent from Ed-
ward VI. annexing the Primacy of Ireland to the sec of Dublin
forever.* Brown was followed by Staples of Meath,t who seems
to have married and changed front; Lancaster of Kildare,J Travers
of Leighlin,§ and Coyn of Limerick. ||
The terrible repugnance of the Irish nation to the national apos-
tacy is well shown in a letter of Staples written in 1548:
" A beneficed man of mine own promotion came unto me weep-
ing, and desired me that he might declare his mind unto me with-
out my displeasure. I said I was well content. My Lord, said he,
before ye went last to Dublin you were the best beloved man in
your Diocese that ever came into it; and now you are worst that
ever came here. I asked. Why? Why, said he, for ye have taken
* Mary restored both its ancient dignity and its orthodox pastor to
the see of Armagh.
t Staples of Meath, a native of Lincolnshire, sometime Master of S.
Bartholomew's Hospital, London, appointed to Meath by provision of
Pope Clement VII. in 1530. His conduct is said to have been most im-
moral. (He was probably not sent to Ireland without cause.) De-
prived by Mary, June 29, 1554. On Elizabeth's accession he imme-
diately wrote to Cecil from Dublin, December 16, 1558, relating his
troubles in the last reign, his deprivation for marriage; "the Lord
Cardinall layed against me fore a greveus article, that I presumed in my
sermond to pray for His (our olde Masters) sole." Begs that his suppli-
cation may be commended to the Queen.
X Lancaster of Kildare, also married. Deprived by Mary 1554.
S Travers of Leighlin, also married. A cruel, avaricious man, and an
oppressor of his clergy. Deprived by Mary.
II Co3m of Limerick. Resigned 1551.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 293
open part with the State, that false heretic, and preached against
the Sacrament of the Altar and deny Saints, and will make us worse
than Jews: if the country wiste how they would eat you; you have,
he said, more curses than ye have hairs of your head; and I advise
you, for Christ's sake, not to preach at Navan, as I hear you will do."
During Edward's reign no Parliament was held in Ireland. Even
the assistants at Bale's consecration * objected to use the new
ordinal, but the intensely Protestant scruples of the fanatic icono-
clast prevailed against all question of civil or canonical legality.
" What a to do I had," he subsequently reported of his Chapter of
Ossory, " with the Prebendaries and priests, about wearing the
cape and miter and carrying the pastoral staff, it were too long
to tell."
On the death of Edward, Bale fled from Kilkenny before Mary
had time to supersede him. He was detested and despised in his
Diocese. The great Anglican ecclesiastical historian Collier terms
Bale " a man of a furious, tempestuous spirit. He misbehaved him-
self to a scandalous degree and failed both in temper and probity."
Wharton, another Protestant authority of high repute,- wrote:
" I know Bale to be so great a liar that I am not willing to take his
judgment against any man to whom he is opposed." Mr. Burke says,
"Bale's private life, both in England and Ireland, is quite unfit
for exposure." But if Bale failed in virtue himself he was unspar-
ing in the denouncing of vice in others. In 1553 he complained f
of his metropolitan and spiritual progenitor. Archbishop Brown,
excusing the corruption of his own Anglican clergy, in Ossory, by
stating that they would not obey, excusing themselves by the evil
life and lewd example of the Archbishop of Dublin, " who was
always slack in things pertaining to God's glory." Bale thus pro-
ceeds with his description of Brown: " He was an epicurious
Archbishop; a dissembling proselyte; a brockish swine; a drunk-
ard; a glutton, a hypocrite, and a frequent supporter of bawds
and . . ."
Mr. Burke says, " the Irish party established the charges of taking
bribes against Brown."
* Goodacre was consecrated to Armag-h and Bale to Ossory on Feb-
ruary 2, 1552, by Brown of Dublin, Lancaster of Kildare, and Magenis
of Down and Conner. Bale was an apostate Carmelite and creature of
Cromwell.
t Bale's " Letters to Poynet."
294 THE OLOBE.
Soon after Mary's accession he was deprived, in common with
the other married and irregular Prelates. The only trace I have
been able to discover of the end of this wretched man's career is
a paragraph in a MS., the property of St. Mary's College, Oscott,
recently edited by Father Morris, S.J. : * " One Brown, by report
a married Bishop of Ireland, had a son who after was hanged on
Shooter's Hill, for murdering Mr. Saunders and his man. This
Bishop himself, as it is said, was after killed with horses."
It must be confessed that the divine chosen by the Marian gov-
ernment to succeed Brown showed himself equally venal and de-
spicable. This was the celebrated Hugh Curwen,f who had many
years previously signaled himself by his audacious defense of the
divorce and royal supremacy. Mr. Froude graphically describes the
incident: " On Sunday, May 1, 1532, Father Peto, afterward famous
through Europe as Cardinal, but at that time a simple brother of
the observant Friars, preached before the Court, which was then
at Greenwich, Henry himself and probably Anne Boleyn were
present." The 1st of May, the advent of the month of Mary, be-
ing a great holy day of the year, in her dowry of England, and
always observed with peculiar splendor, '* the sermon had been
upon the story of Ahab and Naboth, and his text had been, ' Where
the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, even there shall they lick thy
blood, 0 King.' The preacher had dilated at length upon the
crimes and the fall of Ahab, and had drawn the portrait in all its
magnificent wickedness. He had described the scene in the Court
of Heaven, and spoken of the lying prophets who had mocked the
monarch's hopes before the fatal battle. At the end he turned
directly to Henry, and assuming to himself the mission of Micaiah,
he closed his address in the following audacious words: * And now,
0 King,' he said, * hear what I say to thee. I am that Micaiah
* Under the title of " The Catholics of York under Elizabeth," Bums
and Gates.
t Curwen was uncle of Richard Bancroft, whom he educated at Cam-
bridge. Bancroft became Bishop of London, 1597.
He attended Elizabeth during her last illness. At the famous Hamp-
ton Court Conference, under James I., he was one of the chief com-
missioners on behalf of the Church of England, and took the lead in
the disputations. Translated to Canterbury on the death of Whitgift in
1604. He occupied the Primacy until his death, November 2, 1610. He
was a vigilant ruler of his church and a bitter enemy of the Puritans.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 295
whom thou will hate, because I must tell thee truly that this mar-
riage is unlawful, and I know that I shall eat the bread of affliction
and drink the waters of sorrow, yet because the Lord hath put it
in my mouth, I must speak it. There are other preachers, yea, too
many, which preach and persuade thee otherwise, feeding thy folly
and frail affections upon hopes of their own worldly promotion;
and by that means they betray thy soul, thy honor, and thy pros-
perity; to obtain fat benefices, to become rich Abbots and Bishops
and I know not what. These I say are the four hundred prophets
who in the spirit of lying seek to deceive thee. Take heed lest thou
being seduced find Ahab's punishment, who had his blood licked
up by the dogs.' " *
On the following Sunday an ecclesiastic of the Vicar of Bray
type was commissioned to preach on the other side of the question.
The royal champion was a certain Dr. Curwen, one of those men
of whom the preacher spoke prophetically, since by the present and
similar services he made his way to the Deanery of Hereford, the
Archbishopric of Dublin, and the Bishopric of Oxford, and, ac-
cepting the Erastian theory of a Christian's duty, followed Henry
into schism, lapsed with Edward to heresy, went back with Mary
to Catholicism, and conformed under Elizabeth to legal Anglican-
ism. He regarded himself as an official of the State religion; and
his highest conception of evil in a Christian was disobedience to
the reigning authority. We may therefore conceive easily the bur-
den of his sermon in the royal chapel. He most sharply repre-
hended Peto, calling him foul names, dog, slanderer, base, beg-
garly Friar, rebel and traitor, saying that no subject should speak
so daringly to his Prince. He commended Henry's intended mar-
riage, thereby to establish his seed in his seat forever; and having
won, as he supposed, his facile victory, he proceeded with his per-
oration, addressing his absent antagonist: " I speak to thee, Peto,"
he exclaimed, "to thee, Peto, which makest thyself Micaiah that
thou mayest speak evil of Kings; but now art not to be found,
being fled for fear and shame, as unable to answer ray argument."
To the surprise of the King and congregation, a bold voice was
heard from the rood-loft: "Good sir," it said, "you know that
* This curiously happened at the desecrated relig-ious House at Bion,
where Henry's body lay a night on its journey from London to Windsor.
vide Ling-ard, Sander Dedchis Angl.
VOL. VIL— 20.
296 THE GLOBE,
Father Peto, as he was commanded, is now gone to a provincial
council at Canterbury, and not fled for fear of you, for to-morrow
he will return again. In the meantime, I am here as another
Micaiah, and will lay down my life to prove all those things true
which he hath brought out of the Holy Scripture, and to this com-
bat I challenge thee before God and all equal judges. Even unto
thee, Curwen, I say, which are one of the four hundred prophets
into whom the spirit of lying has entered, and seek out of adultery
to establish succession, betraying the King unto endless perdition,
more for thy own vain glory and hope of promotion than for the
discharge of thy dogged conscience and the King's salvation." The
intrepid speaker. Father Robert Elstow, and Peto were cited before
the Council, and when the Lords had rebuked them, the Earl of
Essex (Thomas Cnimwell) told them that they deserved to be put
into a sack and cast into the Thames. To which Elstow replied,
smiling, " Threaten those things to rich and dainty folk, who are
clothed in purple, fare deliciously, and have their chiefest hope in
this world, for we esteem them not, but are joyful that for the
discharge of our duties we are driven hence; and, with thanks to
God, we know the way to Heaven to be as ready by water as by
land, and therefore we care not which way we go." Such English-
men might be broken but they could never be bent. The bold
Friars and all the rest of their order were banished * to die in pov-
erty and exile. Curwen was advanced to the rich Deanery of Here-
ford, in which his obsequious compliance with every change recom-
mended him to the ruling powers, and on Brown's deprivation he
was selected as a suitable successor for the Archbishopric of Dublin,
to which he was consecrated in S. Paul's Cathedral on September
8, 1555, by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, in company
with James Turberville, Elect of Exeter, and William Glynn,
Elect of Bangor. During Mary's reign, Curwen and the Lord
* It is strange how little the world has really changed in the last five
thousand years. " But thou seer, flee thee away. . . . Prophesy not
again any more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, it is the king's
court." Amos, Chap. VII., v. 12, 13 — Angl. Version. It must be remem-
bered that at this time the Church was the only power in the common-
wealth having any right of censure, and, as a body, her ministers, as
a rule, up to the period of the so-called Reformation, had never feared
to boldly denounce iniquity in high places and speak of truth, justice,
and judgment to come.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND, 297
Deputy, Sussex, were zealous in the State religion, but when, soon
after Elizabeth's accession, she commanded her English servants
in Ireland to use her Liturgy in their houses, and by her high pre-
rogative exempted them from impeachment for thus violating acts
of Parliament and the laws of the land, she found them both Eras-
tian to the backbone. Sussex summoned a Parliament in 1560,
which consisted of seventy-six members, twenty members from ten.
counties, fifty-six members from twenty-eight cities or boroughs.
There was no county member for any part of Ulster or Connaught,
though part of both provinces had been represented in preceding
Parliaments. These provinces, comprising fully one-half of Ire-
land, had only six borough members, two from Carrickfergus and
two each from Galway and Atherry. Of the six counties of Mun-,
ster two only were represented, namely Tipperary and Waterford;
and even in Leinster, four of the present counties, viz., the King's
and Queen's Counties, Longford, and Wicklow, were not represented.
Thus the county representation in this Parliament included little
more than one-fourth of the island. Of the whole of the repre-
sentatives two-tliirds were returned from a part only of the present
province of Leinster.
Through this misrepresentation of the people, Sussex managed
to get the Act of Uniformity and other reforming statutes passed,
by trickery or force, but the aversion of this Parliament to the
Protestant religion was so decided that Sussex was obliged to dis-
solve it, after a session of less than three Aveeks' duration. Curwen
was equally unfortunate with a convocation of his suffragans. Will-
iam Walsh, Bishop of Meath, withstood Curwen to his face, was
deprived and imprisoned, as was Thomas Leverous, Bishop of Kil-
dare. The Bishop of Leighlin, Thomas O'Fyllie, who happened
to be in England, was brought before the Council at Greenwich
and made an abject submission, but when he returned to his Dio-
cese gave no further proof of conversion. In 1561, John Thonory,
Bishop of Ossory, was deprived. Mr. Froude remarks:
" I cannot but express my astonishment at a proposition main-
tained by Bishop Mant and others, that the whole hierarchy of
Ireland went over to the Eeformation with the Government. Dr.
Mant discovers that the Bishops of Meath and Kildare were de-
prived for refusing the Oath of Supremacy. The rest, he infers,
must have taken the oath, because they remained in their places.
The English Government, unfortunately for themselves, had no
such opportunity as Dr. Mant's argument supposes for the exercise
298 THE OLOBE,
of their authority. The Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishops of
Meath and Kiidare, were also under English jurisdiction. When
Adam Loftus was made Archbishop of Armagh, the Primacy be-
came titulary Protestant, but Loftus resided in Dublin, Armagh
was practically governed by a Bishop in communion with the Pope,
and the latter, not the former, was regarded in Ireland, even by
the correspondents of the English Government, as the lawful pos-
sessor of the see. Except Curwen, but one other Bishop in all
Ireland, who was in office at Queen Mary's death, can be proved
either to have accepted the Eeformed Prayer Book or abjured the
authority of the Pope." *
The Bishops who were beyond the Queen's power, and therefore
escaped deprivation, continued to enjoy their temporalities and say
Mass, despite the Parliamentary prohibitions. The clergy in general,
as far as they could, followed their Prelates. When overawed by
an English garrison they refrained from public celebrations; when
the soldiers retired they offered their worship in the churches as
before. The people whose faith had been thus altered for them by
the Queen and her Parliament seemed nevertheless in no hurry to
desert the ancient creed. Within the Pale some went to the re-
formed service to escape the fines; without the Pale, they attended
the Roman Catholic worship in defiance of the law. The unanimous
testimony of the Bishops whom Elizabeth subsequently appointed
was to the effect that the Irish people, from one end of the island
to the other, pertinaciously persisted in the old religion. The
Church which the nation continued to love, and which Elizabeth
affected to have altered or destroyed, experienced outside the Pale
no very considerable inconvenience from the withdrawal of the
royal favor. The Irish chieftains solicited the Pope, instead of
the Queen, to appoint their favorites to the vacant sees; they en-
joyed the temporalities, and her majesty's nominees got little but
empty titles. In Armagh the Catholic Primate appeared in arms
against the Queen, while the Protestant Primate, Loftus, loitered
in Dublin, not daring to show himself within his Diocese. Clogher,
Derry, Kilmore, Ardagh, Doun, Connor, and Paphoe remained
for twenty years and more without a successful attempt on the
Queen's part to introduce a Protestant Prelate. In the Provinces
of Munster, Connaught, and Leinster, the Queen's Bishops were
mere political agents, trading on their position and plundering their
* Froude, History of England.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 299
sees. Sheyne in Cork, Magrath in Ca^shel, and O'Brien in Eallaloe
were civil agents rather than Bishops. The Queen chose her Prel-
ates, not for their ability to persuade the people to the new religion,
not for capability, but for their fitness to increase the Queen's influ-
ence among powerful septs, and for conveying useful intelligence to
the Castle, and thus the Eefomied Episcopate became hateful to
Irishmen as a mere machine of State, employed to aid in overturning
the authority of the Irish chieftains, in destroying cherished cus-
toms, and in abolishing the national laws, which they had been,
from time immemorial, accustomed to obey. It is not to be won-
dered at under such circumstances that the State Church should
have remained for long a Church made up of English soldiers and
settlers and of English Bishops, or of Irish Bishops, specially trained
at Oxford or Cambridge in English habits. It is rather to be won-
dered at that Elizabeth, Cecil, Walsingham, and Sydney should
have for a moment regarded such an institution as the Reformed
Church in Ireland as likely — established and administered as it was
—to tend to anything but the permanent alienation of the Irish
people.
Yet Mr. Froude acknowledges, " the language of the Archbishop
of Cashel to Cardinal Alciati shows, that before the Government
attempted to force a religion upon them which had not a single
honest advocate in the whole nation, there was no incurable dis-
loyalty in Ireland." So anxious were the Catholics to accept any
reasonable compromise, as long as it involved no sacrifice of prin-
ciple, that, as late as 1576, " three or four Papist Bishops came to
the Lord Deputy, Sydney, at Cork, and seemed willing to do hom-
age for the temporalities of the sees of which they were in actual
possession.''
Most of the Irish boroughs continued to retain during the whole
reign of Elizabeth the old Catholic oath that had been in use before
the reign of Henry VIII. In 1562, the Commissioners report
" that the people were unwilling to be taught the Reformation, and
ordered the judges not to meddle with the simple multitude, but
to punish a few boasting Mass-mongers in every shire of the Pale;
as for the Reformation beyond the Pale, the Bishops, they add, be
all Irish. We need say no more. Even in Dublin itself very little
progress seems to have been made. Loftus and Brady of Meath —
the latter himself by some accounted a Neuter — wrote in most dis-
paraging terms of Curwen. Loftus, in a letter to Archbishop
300 THE GLOBE,
Parker, describes him " as a known enemy and laboring under open
crimes, which although he shameth not to do, I am almost ashamed
to mention."
In 1565, Brady speaks of him " as a disguised dissembler and an
old unprofitable workman."
Lof tus repori;s " that he hardly ever preached the reformed doc-
trines, that he frequently did not require the Oath of Supremacy
from the clergy whom he promoted to benefices, that he and all
his canons of S. Patrick, who were also parochial clergy, were old
bottles and could not hold this new wine of the Eef ormation; dumb
dogs, neither teaching nor feeding save themselves; that he never
enacted conformity from many of those canons who retained their
places to their death."
The Koyal Commissioners in 1563-4 had suggested a special com-
mission to visit S. Patrick's and Christ Church, but obtained
neither. In 1565 Cecil wrote, " I am sorry to hear no good done
in the survey of S. Patrick's, which now serveth for lurking Papists."
In 1566 Lof tus again declares of Curwen "that he neither does
good in preaching, nor reforming his Diocese. He placeth in the
sufficient livings those whom he never saw and never come there,
open enemies, and such as for want of learning are never able, even
if they had the will, to do the Church much good. In open judg-
ment— loath I am to say it, and I say it only constrainedly — in open
judgment, he will swear terribly, and that not once or twice. I
beseech your honor, is it not time, and more than time, that such
a one be removed? And yet I spare him, I assure your honor, that
you may understand how far I am from maligning him." Even
the Lord Deputy, Sydney, deemed it absurd to think of reforming
the rest of the land, so long as the city of Dublin itself remained
unref ormed with such a Bishop, and it was only on Curwen's trans-
lation to Oxford* in 1567 that the Lord Deputy wrote, " Now comes
the hour for reforming the Church."
Even in the Anglo-Irish town of Galway public Mass was not
suppressed until 1569.
* Elizabeth and Cecil perhaps thought that Oxford, which she had
kept vacant for nine years, would be suited to this old disreputable
semi-Catholic, or at least neuter. So strongly anti-Protestant then, and
for long^ after, was the atmosphere of Oxford, that a Protestant Bishop
might have caused disturbance. Curwen died toward the end of 15G8,
at one of his episcopal manors, near Burford.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 301
In 1566 the Bishop of Meath excused himself for not having
executed the ecclesiastical commission as zealously as his colleague
Loftus had expected. " If he says I have drawn backward, I only
say he has drawn too fast forward, as the circumstances shall well
declare." Under the short administration of the Earl of Essex,
Mass was allowed in private chapels, but not in public churches.
"The Anglo-Irish civil and military officers accompanied the
English Governors to the church doors, and then," says an English
eye-witness, " run like wild cats." But the Eoman Catholic wor-
ship was prohibited everywhere, as far as possible; most of the
parish churches in the towns and in the country of the Pale were
gradually closed and fell to ruin. In Cork, Waterford, and Kil-
kenny, when the Catholics rose at the death of Elizabeth and opened
them, after nearly half a century of dirt and desecration, they were
found to be loathsome dens of filth.
" During Elizabeth's reign the great majority of the Catholic
Bishops certainly continued their relations with Kome; three of
them took part in the Council of Trent: they sign its decrees, as
Bishops of Ross, Achonry, and Eaphoe, and in 1587 seven Bishops
assembled in the Province of Ulster to promulgate its decisions."
In 1568 eleven of the Irish Bishops signed a petition to the Pope
and the King of Spain, asking for succor for the Catholic cause.
Curwen was succeeded in the see of Dublin by a more enthusiastic
Protestant, one Adam Loftus, whom he had uncanonically conse-
crated to Armagh on March 2, 1563, by order of the Queen^^ his
Chapter having refused to proceed to his election, the Protestant
Primate-elect of Ireland being in his twenty-eighth year (?).
Loftus, who, it was said, gained the royal favor more by his good
looks than his theological merits, is termed by Mr. Froude " a self-
seeking scoundrel." Neither he nor his successor, Lancaster, seems
even to have resided at Armagh, from which he petitioned con-
stantly to be removed, " because it was neither worth anything to
him, nor was he able to do any good in it, as it lay altogether among
the Irish." His chief activity seems at that time to have been ex-
ercised in damaging the character of the Archbishop of Dublin.
On September 3, 1566, he wrote to Cecil that Dr. John Dever-
eux was seeking the see of Ferus, " from the Deanery of which he
has been lately deprived for professed immorality. An unfitter
person cannot be." And yet he was appointed and consecrated by
Curwen.
302 THE OLOBE.
The religious confusion may be estimated by the curious fact
that Gafney, Bisliop of Ossory, 15(37-1576, never conferred holy
orders in his Diocese, but gave letters dimissory to a Papal Bishop,
and this practice, according to Loftus, was not confined to one
Diocese. Bishop Gafney^s scruples as to " Anglican Orders " seem
not to have extended to simony, for he actually sold one of his
Archdeaconries; and for neither of these offenses does Loftus ap-
pear to have taken any pains to punish or correct him.
On March 14, 1564, the Bishop of Meath wrote: " Oh, what
a sea of troubles have I entered into, storms arising on every side:
the ungodly lawyers are not only sworn enemies of the truth, but
alas! for lack of due execution of law, the overthrowers of the coun-
try. The ragged clergy are stubborn and ignorantly blind, so there
is little hope of their amendment. The simple multitude is, through
continual ignorance, hardly to be won, so that I find affliction on
every side."
On May 16, 1565, the same Prelate reports "that he was
only able to hold his ground at all in the Diocese by giving good
cheer * to every one that wished to call on him." The Lord Deputy,
Sir Henry Sydney, in 1575, after a journey of six months through
Ireland, suggested various matters for reformation, of which the
first head he said was " the Church, now so spoiled as well by the
ruin of the temples as the dissipation of the patrimony, and most of
all for want of sufficient ministers, as so deformed and overthrown
a Church there is not, I am sure, in any region where Christ is pro-
fessed, and preposterous it seemeth to me to begin Eeformation
of the politic part and neglect the religious. In Meath, the best
peopled Diocese and best governed coimtry of this your realm, out
of two hundred and twenty-four parish churches, one hundred and
five are impropriated, no parson or vicar resident on any of them,
and a very simple or sorry curate, for the most part, appointed to
serve therein; only eighteen of whom can speak English. Fifty-
two other churches are served but badly; fifty-two more which per-
tain to particular lords, these, though in better estate than the rest,
are yet far from well. If I should write unto your majesty, what
spoil had been and is of the Archbishoprics, whereof there are four,
* This unutterable meanness of bribing" starving- people to apostatize,
has not been unknown in Ireland even in the present century, in which
a word of contempt to express it has been coined — " souper."
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 303
and of the Bishoprics, whereof there are about thirty, partly by the
Prelates themselves, partly by the Potentates, their noisome neigh-
bors, I should make too long a libel of this my letter. But your
majesty may believe it, that upon the face of the earth, where Christ
is professed, there is not a church in so miserable a case: the misery
of which consisteth in these three particulars: the ruin of the very
temples themselves, the want of good ministers to serve in them,
when they shall be re-edified, competent living for the ministers
being well chosen."
In 1579 the Lord Justice, Sir William Pelham, wrote to Wal-
singham from Trien, " I desire to put you in mind of the miserable
state of the clergy of this land, among whom I cannot but marvel
to see so few able ministers, or so little order taken for their main-
tenance. In the Diocese of Meath, one person has impropriated
sixteen benefices, and among them not one minister or vicar main-
tained that can read English or understand Latin or give any good
instruction to his parishioners."
The Commissioners appointed to enquire into the state of the
Irish Church in 1577, in their first report had specially dwelt on
the abuses committed by some of the Protestant dignitaries; the
Bishops in reply had accused the Commissioners of simony in their
dealings with the clergy; according to the Commissioners, the
Bishops had admitted to livings, boj^s, keam, laymen, and other
incapable persons, some of whom they had deprived; as, for instance,
George Cusack, a lay serving man, who had Kentstown in Meath;
Lucas Plunket, prentice to a vintner in Dublin, who had Killany;
Robert Nugent, a horseman of the Baron of Delvin's retinue, who
had Galtrun; and John Barnwell, a young boy of Dublin, who had
Kilmessan. Mr. Froude remarks that even " the landowners of
Meath and Kildare were all Catholics and loathed the mockery
which was offered them in lieu of their own ritual. The Bishoprics
had been made prizes for the scrambling of scoundrels. Ross,
Carberry, and Kilfenorah were occupied by laymen. The Bishop
of Killaloe was a boy at Oxford. In some sees there were Bishops
nominated from Rome, whom the Government recognized or did
not recognize, as their humor varied. The Bishop of Cork sold
the livings in his Diocese to horsemen and ' kearne,' and when
called to account, defended himself in a sermon, preached before
the Lord President in the cathedral, saying, ^ that unless he sold
the livings of his collation, he was not able to live, his Bishopric
304 THE GLOBE.
was so poor.' At Waterford, where the English service was estab-
hshed with some regularity, the citizens refused to attend, but took
possession of their churches early in the mornings, and heard Mass
there. They would accept none of the rites of religion from the
reformed clergy. Their own priests married them in private houses.
They buried their dead in spots of their own selection, avoiding
the churchyards, which they now regarded as profaned, and conse-
crating these new resting-places ' with prayers and flowers, and can-
dles and ringing of bells.' " And the more the records of the time
are searched, the more it appears that " the intrusive religion was
not recommended by its moral influences. In the year 1570, Dr.
Robert Dixon was appointed Protestant Bishop of Cork; eighteen
months later, the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, Adam Loftus,
had to write the following letter about him to Lord Burghley:
Please your Lordship, whereas Richard, Bishop of Cork, notwith-
standing he had and hath a married wife, did, under color of mat-
rimony, take and retain another woman of suspected life in the city
of Cork as his wife, and thereof by public fame and crying out of
that his deed, the matter coming to our ears, he being called before
us to answer thereunto, confessed the same." Another apostle of
the so-called Reformation, Bishop Middleton of Waterford, secured
his translation to the richer see of S. David's, where he was soon
after publicly degraded for the forgery of a will. One Dr. William
Knight, sent over as coadjutor to the Archbishop of Cashel, was
obliged soon to return to England, " for that," says Archbishop
King, " Knight had appeared drunk in public, and thereby exposed
himself to the scorn and derision of the people." In 1578 a dispute
arose between the Bishops, headed by Loftus, and the Queen's ec-
clesiastical Commissioners for Ireland, which was not settled until
Loftus was admitted to a share in the profits. The mutual recrim-
inations opened strange revelations as to the state of the Establish-
ment at that period.
In 1580 articles were sent to England against Sir John Ball, the
nephew of Lord Chancellor Weston, who, although a layman, was
Dean of S. Patrick's. This Ball was appointed by Loftus as his
commissary, and given also, although it appears to be doubtful
whether he was in any holy orders, the Archdeaconry of Glen-
dalough and the Parsonage of Newcastle. He was greatly sus-
pected to be a Papist or a Neuter; he refused to wear a surplice in
the time of Cathedral service, and was not contented with his own
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 305
stall next the chanter but installed his wife in the seat next unto
him. It was further objected against Ball, that being complained
of by many for his licentious life, and being presented to the Dean
for impropriety with one Cicely Fletcher, a woman of evil conversa-
tion, notwithstanding he is married and hath his wife there, yet by
the sufferance of the Dean, his uncle, he is winked at, to the main-
tenance of others as evil disposed as himself, and to the great grief
of a number of true-hearted subjects, to see such apparent vices
unpunished in the Commonwealth. And being commissary and
having any rich men in the country in the censures of the Church
for similar offenses, he absolves them for money in the fields, to
cover their crimes with the Pope's absolution, Absolvo te elc, and
hath been seen and heard by credible persons giving that absolu-
tion, on horseback in the fields * — the penitent kneeling before
him — which is his common practice to get money as he visits in
the country. Ball was also accused of affording special opportuni-
ties to fair and well-favored women who needed absolution, never
putting them to the annoyance of having their causes tried in open
court, but politely hearing them in private. This John Ball was,
at this very time, recommended by Loftus to Cecil, for the office
of Registrar to the Commission and Collector of Fines under the
Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. In the Vatican archives
at Kome, a fragmentary account of the Irish Church is preserved,
dated 1580. Fifteen sees are described as filled with Catholics, viz.,
Lismore and Waterford, Cork and Cloyne, Ross, Emly, Killaloe,
Mayo, Achonry, Clonfert, Kilmacduagh, Armagh, Derry, Raphoe,
Kilmore, Ardagh, Dromore. None but the Bishop of Waterford
had taken the oath of allegiance; the other sees are described as
vacant or occupied by heretics. The following particulars are added:
Cashel had been occupied by Miler, late Bishop of Down and
Connor. It is vacant by the death of Morice McGibbon, who died
an exile in Spain.
Limerick, vacant by the death of Hugh Lacy, deceased in his see.
Ardfert, by the death of James N"., deceased in his Diocese a few
years ago.
Tuam, Christopher Bodkin was considered its Archbishop. He
* This statement as to Ball's g'iving' absolution on horseback in the
fields is hardly credible. But with what crime or absurdity would not
an Irish Protestant credit a Papist!
306 THE GLOBE.
held four sees and contended for that of Mayo, so that it is doubt-
ful which was his true see.
Anagduagh, vacant by the death of William Moore.
Kilfenora, by the death of its Bishop.
Meath, by the death of William Walsh, died in Alcala, Suffragan
of the Archbishop of Toledo.
Down and Connor, by the deposition of Miler, an apostate and
married man, by the Holy See.*
Clonmacoese, by the death of Peter Wall, of the order of
Preachers.
Dublin, occupied by an heretical Bishop.
Kildare, vacant by the death of Leverous.
Leighlin, occupied many years by heretics.
Kilkenny, vacant by the death of its Bishop, long since deceased.
Ferus, vacant by the death of its Bishop, occupied by a certain
man, who though Catholic in sentiment, yet being instituted by
the Queen, administered the see as a heretic.
Amongst these there are two in which Bishops can be appointed
without danger, viz., Ardfert in the Desmond Territory, which is
called Kerry, in which the Earl of Desmond is all-powerful and en-
joys regal rights. Down and Connor, in the Territory of the O'Neils,
who are Catholic Princes and are actively engaged in war against
the Queen.
During the first part of her reign, the Queen seemed to doubt the
expediency of allowing the new religion to be pressed upon the
people, except in Dublin and in some few places within the Pale.
There is no trace of any letter to any Bishops, "except Curwen, eall-
* Miles McGrath, a Franciscan friar advanced by Pope Pius V. to
Down, having- apostatized, was piit into Clogher, Sei)tember 18, 1570;
his temporalities being restored same day. He was translated to
Cashel 1571, and sat there over 52 years, until his death in December,
1622, in the 100th year of his age. He made most scandalous wastes
and alienations of the revenues and manors of his see.
The country people always had a tradition (curiously confirmed by
recent documentary evidence), that he died a Catholic, and g-ave pri-
vate orders that his body should not be buried in the Cathedral. His
curious epitaph was written by himself: " Patrick the glory of our Isk*
and gown, first sat as Bishop in the See of Down, I wish that I suc-
ceeding him in place as Bishop had an equal share of grace." He was
a great favorite with Elizabeth, who allowed him to hold bishoprics
and other preferments in addition to Cashel.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 307
ing on them to consecrate the Queen's Bishops or introduce the
new worship into their Cathedrals. At Cork and Limerick the old
service seems to have been retained for several years. The Queen's
Deputies were met in their progresses by the Catholic Bishops in
their pontificals.
In 1580 Lord Grey, the Lord Deputy, writes in a private letter to
Elizabeth.
" Your Highness, at my leave-taking, gave me a warning for be-
ing strict in dealing with religion. I have observed it; how obedi-
ently soever; yet most unwillingly I confess, and I doubt not as
harmfully to your and God's service. A canker never receiving
cure without corrosive medicines."
Edmund Spencer, who had a personal knowledge of Ireland,
having obtained a large confiscated estate in the County Cork, and
aided in rocking Protestantism in its Irish cradle, thus writes of the
Protestant Bishops:
" Some of the Bishops whose Dioceses are in remote places, some-
what out of the world's eye, do not at all bestow the benefices which
are in their own donations upon any, but keep them in their own
hands, and set their own servants and horse-boys to take up the
tithes and fruits of them; with the which some of them purchased
great lands, and built fair castelles upon the same, of which abuse,
if any question be moved, they have a very seemly colour and excuse,
that they have no worthy ministers to bestow them upon."
Having disposed of the Prelacy of his Church, Spencer remarks
of the clergy: " Whatever disorders you see in the Church of Eng-
land, you find there (Ireland) and many more — namely, gross
simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly incontinencies, careless sloth,
and generally all disordered life in the common clergyman.
" I loathe and abhor those Papish priests," wrote Spencer. Yet
his honest English nature forced him to confess that, " It is a great
wonder to see the odds which is between the zeal of Popish priests
and the ministers of the Gospel, for they spare not to come out of
Spain, from Rome, and from Rheims by long toil and dangerous
traveling hither, where they know peril of death awaiteth them,
and no reward or riches is to be found, only to draw the people into
the Church of Rome; whereas some of our idle ministers, having
a way for credit and estimation thereby opened unto them, and hav-
ing the livings of the country offered to them, without pain and
without peril, will neither for the same, nor any love of God, nor
zeal for religion, or for all the good they may do by winning souls
to God, be drawn forth from their warm nests to look out into
God's harvest." *
* Spencer, on " Religion in Ireland as Witnessed by Himself." Quoted
by Burke.
308 THE GLOBE.
On September 12, 1581, Andrew Trollope, a secret agent of Wal-
singham's, reports to his master " that the Commission of Faculties
give licenses to hold three or four benefices, not only to spiritual
but some temporal men. ... I was certified and I find it very
likely to be true, that my Lord Bishop of Dublin (Loftus) is a part-
ner in the profits of the Commission. ... He hath many
children and is anxious to prefer them; he has given three of his
daughters five hundred pounds each as a marriage portion. He
has bought land in Kent, worth two hundred pounds a year, and
keepeth one of his sons at the Temple of London. His necessities
many think maketh him have a cheverelle conscience."
Nor was Loftus the only Archbishop intent on plunder. In
October, 1582, the celebrated Miler McGrath thus petitioned the
Queen:
" Most humbly showeth to your excellent Majesty, your faithful
servant Milerus, Archbishop of Cashel. Whereas in the realm of
Ireland are sundry courts of divers authorities and jurisdictions,
appointed for the administration of justice and law, wherein some-
times certain officers. Judges, Barristers, Lawyers, and Ministers
of the law are known to be, or at the least are vehemently suspected
to be, Papists and recusants, not sworn to your Majesty's supremacy
according to the statute provided in that behalf, and sometimes
many good Protestants and subjects accused by such malicious
Papists before such Judges, officers and Lawyers of that sort, who
will try the said embracers of the Gospel by Papistical suborned
inquests and witnesses, and the same their doings maintained by
the said officers and lawyers, to the great danger and overthrow of
your Majesty's faithful subjects. All sorts of the said Papists being
fully persuaded to have and enjoy the Pope's blessing and authority
to be foresworn, in case they might overthrow any Protestant or
favorer of your Majesty's proceedings. In consideration whereof
it may please your Majesty to direct general instructions to the
Lord Deputy and Council not to suffer any Judge, temporal or
spiritual, to judge, or any jury or witness to pass or be accepted in
any matter, where anything is to be enquired, or judged, against
any of your said subjects and known Protestants, but such Judges,
Barristers, and Lawyers, as are or shall be sworn to your Majesty's
supremacy, and have received the Holy Communion once in the
year before, according to God's and your Highness's laws in that
case provided, and your Majesty's suppliant with the rest of the
few members or Protestants and furtherers of your Majesty's godly
proceedings, which no doubt by these means will increase in that
land, shall continually pray for the preservation of your Majesty's
most royal person in all felicity. Forasmuch as many now within
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND' 309
the realm of Ireland, and especially in the Province of Munster, as
well officers and ministers of the law, head officers of towns and
cities, principal lords and gentlemen, as Justices of the Peace and
Assizes, and Prelates of the Church, are appointed and elected in
their several offices and callings there, never being sworn to the
oath of her Majesty's supremacy, according to the statute in that
behalf provided, although every of them presumeth to exercise their
several callings without punishment, a thing very dangerous and
worthy to be looked unto. May it please your Honorable Lordships
to grant authority to your suppliant, or to some other well affected
in such a case, to take and receive the said oaths from all manner
of persons. . . . Forasmuch as the sufferance hitherto used
with Friars, Monks, Jesuits and Seminary Eomish Priests and
Bishops in general, is the only mother and nurse of rebellion and
disloyalty in Ireland, and especially in Ulster, and in that part of
Connaught where they remain unsuppressed as yet. It may there-
fore please your Honorable Lordships to grant to your suppliant
and other fit persons a commission in like sort, with some ability
to execute the same, and to suppress all such Abbeys and Monas-
teries, and to apprehend and to commit to prison all persons of the
aforenamed sort, and to seize on all their goods to her Majesty's use.
For that it is a part of a good subject's duty to show and declare
his good will toward his Prince, as well by words as by deeds, ac-
cording to his ability; therefore your suppliant, considering that
all the livings and other spiritual promotions within the most part
of the Province of Ulster are yet untaxed, and by that means no
manner of benefit growing to her Majesty out of any of them, but
the same wholly by the Pope's usurped power and authority main-
tained and occupied by such as derive their title from him. If
therefore it shall please your Lordships to grant the custody of all
livings, so detained by any manner of persons within the Province
of Ulster, to your suppliant, with authority to grant every of them
(except Bishoprics) for certain years to such that will get security
to pay first-fruits and twenty parts to her Majesty yearly, during
that time, to her Majesty, and that your suppliant's custody shall
be ended in every Bishopric as soon as any man shall be had by the
State that will accept the Bishopric, and observe her Majesty's laws
and injunctions; he will endeavor, being a man bom and well
friended in that country, not only to diminish the Pope's authority
there, but also to increase God's glory and her Majesty's revenues.
. . . For that the inhabitants of the town of Cashel and ffidens,
being not only of the Diocese of Cashel but also parcel and mem-
bers of the said Archbishopric, are willing always to receive such
Bishops as cometh from Eome, as appeared by their doings in your
suppliant's predecessor's time (who being captive was brought out
of his own house within a mile of Cashel, by one Morris Reogh,
then from the Pope appointed Archbishop there, the said Morris
was admitted and conducted by the said townsmen of Cashel to say
310 THE GLOBE.
a Mass in the Cathedral Church of Cashel), and now in like sort had
received peaceably such Bishops as came from Rome of late, where-
fore it may please your Honor, not only to set down what punish-
ment shall be thought fit for their doings, but also give directions
that the head officers and burgesses and every one being of age in
the said towns shall be compelled to put in securities before the
Lord Chancellor to come to church and receive the Holy Com-
munion, which hitherto they have refused to do."
The constancy of the Irish people to their faith excited the ad-
miration of the Deputy so much that on one occasion he exclaimed,
"I know not how this attachment to the Catholic Church is so
rooted in Irish hearts, unless it be that the very soil is infected
and the air tainted with Popery; for they obstinately prefer it to
all things else — to allegiance to their Eang, to respect for his min-
isters, to the care of their own posterity, and to all their hopes and
prospects."
In 1584, one of the State papers records, that even in the Arch-
diocese of Dublin, " where things should be best reformed," there
are bo many churches fallen down, so many children dispensed
withal to enjoy the livings of the Church, so many laymen, as
they are commonly termed, permitted to hold benefices, so many
clergymen tolerated to have the profits of three or more pastoral
dignities, who being themselves unlearned are not meet men;
though they were willing to teach and instruct others; as whoso
beholdeth this miserable confusion and disorder, and hath any zeal
of God in his heart, must not choose but make the same known,
especially unto such as bestow their whole care and travail to re-
form these enormities, and would, no doubt, be glad to see those
decays of religion built up again."
In December of the same year (1584), the Prebendaries of S.
Patrick's wrote to the Lords of the Council, " that there is not one
in that land to be found which can or will preach the Gospel, four
Bishops and the Prebendaries of S. Patrick's only excepted. This
is lamentable with God's people."
The Lord Deputy, Fitzwilliam, wrote in 1587: "It is most true
and lamentable, that between Dublin and the furthest end of Mun-
ster there is not one church standing, convenient to repair unto,
except it be in the haven towns."
About this time, the two Ecclesiastical Commissioners were
George Ackworth, Doctor of Civil Law, a clergyman who had been
deprived of his living in England for inordinate life, and Robert
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND, 311
Garvey, not in holy orders, a Bachelor in Civil Law. Loftus
charged these Commissioners that they have given dispensations
to hold livings to persons who did not take the oath of supremacy
and abjuration, " whose names I shall be ready to declare, when
I shall be thereto required." Among other scandalous transactions,
they granted a dispensation to Thomas Power, a boy of ten, to hold
a vicarage without residence.
Mr. Froude's estimate of the character of xVrchbishop Loftus is
endorsed by a high Protestant authority, who says " that his great
qualities were something tarnished by his excessive ambition and
avarice, for besides his promotion in the Church and his public
employments in the State, he grasped at everything that became
void, either for himself or family, forasmuch that the Dean and
Chapter of Christ Church were so wearied with his importunities,
that upon August 28, 1578, upon granting him some request,
obliged him to promise not to petition or to become suitor to
them for any Prebend or living, nor for any lease of any benefice,
nor for any fee farm. But when an entry of this promise came to
be made in the Chapter Book in his presence, he would have thrust
in an exception of one petition more, and no more, which the Dean
and Chapter would not consent to, being, as they alleged in that
entry, contrary to his lordship's promise made in the Chapter
House. However, this disposition of his was afterward of service
in preserving the ancient Cathedral of S. Patrick's, Dublin, from
being dissolved and converted into a university. For being greatly
interested in the livings of that church, by long leases and other
estates thereof, granted either to himself, his children, or his kins-
men, he opposed Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy, in his attempt of
converting the revenues thereof to the uses aforesaid. To clear up
this matter, and also to show the hand this vigilant and active
Prelate had in the ruin of Sir John Perrot, it will be necessary to
mention some passages out of the life of that Lord Deputy.
In 1585, Perrot made a journey to the North, and left Archbishop
Loftus and Sir Henry Wallop Lord Justices during his absence.
His back was no sooner turned but they wrote letters of complaint
against him to Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State; which,
with the insinuations of Sir Jeffry Fenton, then in England, to the
Queen, proved the first dawnings of Perrot's troubles. The same
year great unkindness burst out between the Lord Deputy Perrot
and Archbishop Loftus, partly upon public accounts, but chiefly
VOL. VII.— 21.
312 TEE GLOBE.
concerning S. Patrick's Chnrch, which the Lord Deputy had in
his instructions to convert to a college, and had a great desire to
set it forward. But Archbishop Loftus, Lord Chancellor, opposed
him, being interested in the livings of S. Patrick's by long leases
and other estates thereof, granted either to himself, his children,
or kinsmen; and therefore did by all means withstand the aliena-
tion of these revenues. And being a man of a high spirit, and used
to bearing sway in the Government, he grew into contradiction, and
from contradiction to contention, with the Deputy; who, on the
other side, brooking no opposition, it grew to some heat between
them; wherefore the Queen taking notice, wrote to them both to
reconcile themselves together; but the Archbishop stuck to him
to the last, and was a main instrument in bringing him to his
condemnation; and Perrot,* in his last will, solemnly testified that
the Archbishop f falsely belied him in his declaration against him.
Dr. William Lyon, a native of Chester, who, in 1573, was made
Vicar of Naas, and four years afterward obtained dispensation to
hold the same, with any other benefice, for life, and leave to live in
England and transport the profits 3f his vicarage into that king-
dom, was made Bishop of Ross by Elizabeth in 1582, and the fol-
lowing year obtained also the sees of Cork and Cloyne.
Writing on July 6, 1596, from Cork, to Lord Hunsdon, the Lord
Chamberlain, Elizabeth's cousin, and one of the most bitter enemies
of Catholicity, Lyon remarks:
" The people are ignorant of God and His truth, led by false
teachers, that draw them away from their obedience to her
Majesty's godly laws and proceeding to that palpable and dam-
nable blindness to obey her Majesty's palpable enemy, that anti-
christ of Rome. . . . In the city of Cork all is done in
private houses by Massing priests. About March last was twelve-
months were committed by Sir Thomas Norreys, myself and others,
seven or eight recusants from the city of Cork. . . . Our
State here is very dangerous. The Lord of His mercy put it
into her Majesty's heart and the rest of that most honorable State
to see to the Reformation of the same, for the furtherance whereof
I most humbly crave your honor's favor. Here are five Justices
of Peace that sit on the bench every sessions, but they never took
the Oath of Supremacy to her Majesty, nor will they.
* Perrot was condemned and died suddenly in the Tower.
tLoftns died at his Palace of S. Sepulori, Diiblin, April 5, 1605, and
was buried in S. Patrick's, having been 37 years Archbishop of Dublin,
and in the 42d year of his consecration.
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 313
" Two of them utterly refused at the general sessions holdeii in
March last. Hereby they generally are mightily drawn away from
their loyalty to her Majesty's godly laws now within these two
years, so far that where 1 had a thousand or more in a chureli at
sermon, I now have not five; and whereas I have seen five hundred
communicants or more, now there are not three, and not one woman,
either at divine service or communion; which thing, my good
Lord, if it he not looked into, will grow to a great mischief in the
commonwealth. The ground of all these mischiefs is the lack of
teachers, neither will they come to be taught as her Majesty hath
appointed, and by the laws it was prescribed. It is lamentable, my
good lord, to see and most woeful to hear that in this Proyince there
is not one preacher of this nation; I mean of the Irish; and very
few in other parts of the kingdom, which is a token, I fear me, that
God hath cast them off. The cause of all these evils before re-
hearsed is the want of due execution of those godly laws which are
established, whereby not obeying for conscience' sake, they are em-
boldened forward in their ungodliness, disloyalty, disobedit'nce,
and rebellion, and out of this cause springeth the boldness of the
people. The Pope's Legate, Friars, Priests, and seminaries, of whom
this country is full, as also the city of Cork; whereas there be ex-
seminary and seducing priests resident within the city, maintained
and kept daily by the Aldermen and merchants of the city, to say
Mass, baptize, minister the Sacraments, and other their Popish
ceremonies in their private houses, and when I am out of the town
they walk openly and commonly in the street, accompanied with
the Aldermen and officers of the city, and conveyed forth of the
town, when they go to say their Masses in the country abroad,
neither want they anything. I have their names and who main-
taineth them, and how far I have dealt herein, to the discharge of
my duty, in my function to Godward and my obedience to her
Majesty, may appear by a letter written by me unto my honor's
good lord, the Lord Deputy.
" And therefore, my Honor's good lord, I desire that your Honor
may further this, my lamentable complaint to her Majesty, that
redress may be had of these things, for the preservation of her
Majesty and the commonwealth of this poor country, and safe-
guard of those few professors of the truth which are here resident
in this land. Under reformation, I speak it with all humility, as
one that earnestly desireth the good of the Church and the peace
of this kingdom, that some order may be taken that these seducers
as Priests, Friars, Jesuits, and seminaries and their maintainers
may be restrained, and some sharp punishment devised for them,
according to your honor's grave and wise discretion, that those
that are in Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Clonmel, Fethard, Cashel,
Kilmalock, Youghal, and Kinsale, and other towns may be re-
formed, whereon the reformation of the whole country dependeth;
for the example of the cities and towns mar the countr}% their trade
314 THE OLOBE,
being beyond the seas, from whence they bring little good; and in
the country they may be straightly looked into, and also that none
come over from beyond the seas, as they daily do, I mean of those
wicked priests. . . . My good lord, I know more than I will
trouble your Honor with at this time; my duty is to deliver my
knowledge. It lieth in your honor and the rest of that most hon-
orable Council to cause redress.''
Some of the Anglo-Irish clergy seem to have returned to the
Church, for Lyon proceeds: " Also the priests of the country for-
sake their benefices to become Massing priests, because they are
so well entreated and so much made of among the people. Many
of them have forsaken their benefices by the persuasion of these
Popish seminarians, that come from beyond the seas. They have a
new mischief in hand, if it be not prevented. . . . The best
name that they give unto the divine service appointed by her
Majesty in the Church of England, is the DivelFs service, and the
professors thereof, Divells, and when they meet out of the pro-
fession they will cross themselves after the Popish manner; and
any that company with us, and receive any living of me or the
like, being appointed by her Majesty, they excommunicate him or
them, and will not suffer them to come in their company. My
good lord, I have caused churches to be re-edified and provided
bocks, . . . but none will come to church at all, not so much
as the country churls; they follow their seducers the priests and
their superiors. . . . Also I must not forget the perverse
recusants that come out of England hither, and especially to these
parts, and most part to Waterford, the sink of all filthy superstition
and idolatry, with contempt of her Majesty's godly laws and pro-
ceedings. In Waterford the Mayor and Sheriffs of the city come
not to church, neither will they take the Oath of Supremacy, and in
this city of Cork the Bailiffs refuse the oath, neither come they to
the church."
This is the testimony of a Protestant Bishop in Ireland, almost
at the end of the Tudor dynasty, under which a torrent of ecclesias-
tical revolutions had swept away the ancient religious unity of the
land. That there was even the remotest external resemblance be-
tween the pre-reformation Catholic Church, in Ireland, and the
Elizabethan Establishment, at the time, or as now separated from
the State, could be only maintained by those curious minds, blind
to facts, who hide the truth even from themselves by an adroit dis-
appearance into side issues. Indeed, it is not too much to say that
not one in ten thousand of Irish Episcopalians would regard con-
tinuity with the Catholic body in any other Hght but that of a most
disgraceful connection. This paper cannot be better concluded
than by quoting the words of a well-informed author, who thus
THE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. 315
tersely sums up the political and religious working of the new re-
ligion in the sister kingdom:
" The reign of Elizabeth had ceased before her sovereignty had
been practically exercised in some of the remoter parts of Ireland.
During that reign of five and forty years, religion had little chance
of improvement.
" The slaughters and massacres, the treacheries and plots, the
confiscations and attainders, which gained for the English a gradual
and sure mastery over the Irish, implanted within Irish hearts an
ineradicable aversion to the Establishment which, like a network,
spread its meshes over every parish, as a sign and token of defeat
and capture. The people perhaps saw little to admire in an Estab-
lishment wherein the Bishops, cathedral churches, and clergy had
already, in Burghley's time, begun to make unconscionable long
leases for two hundred and for ninety-nine years, and which con-
tinued for long a mere machine for collecting the remnants of
Church property, which the greed of laymen and churchmen had
spared. The few English ministers who resided on their benefices
were farmers and settlers rather than Evangelists, and were in-
capable, from ignorance of the language, of teaching the re-
formed" (?) "doctrines, even if their ill lives had not destroyed
all desire to fulfill the functions of their calling. Archbishops and
Bishops, who tortured their Papal rivals and hunted down the
Queen's rebels, could hardly be looked on as good shepherds by t*he
harried flock, and ministrations intruded upon poor wretches cast
into prison to compel them to hearken to their persuaders, must
have been highly offensive. Fining a young nobleman one hundred
marks for hearing Mass may have seemed to Loftus and Sydney
only a proper mode of advancing the Gospel within the Pale, but
the victims to this species of proselytism clung all the more closely
to the worship which cost them so dear, and were the less likely to
embrace the worship which the State offered for nothing. In fact,
the Establishment which Elizabeth founded was an Establishment,
and no more. It could not in her day be called a Church except by
a kind of fiction. If it possessed a staff of dignitaries as well as
Bishops, it was entirely wanting in the essential and principal part
of a Church — namely, people to be ministered to. It has been cor-
rectly likened unto a body of shepherds without a flock. . . .
The Establishment in Ireland commenced its career by violating
the simplest rules of Christianity, when it prescribed penalties for
its support. Morality was outraged when the Establishment be-
came the recipient of the confiscated Church property of the Irish
nation. Common sense is outraged when it is attempted to justify
the continuance of that confiscation by the plea that Curwen's con-
secrations were canonical, and by the assertion that two Bishops
of the Irish Church Joined him in his alleged conversion. History
is falsified when it is said that the Irish Church thus reformed itself.
316 THE GLOBE.
Against such falsehoods and sophistries the very stones of the tem-
ples and churches which Sydney saw ruined, in his day, cry out in
the present generation. A voice from the ancient graveyards, with
their broken chancels, mutilated crosses, and shattered towers is
lifted up in protestation against such an untruth/'
England. Thomas E. H. Williams.
SAINT URSULE'S DREAM.
In spacious, silent chamber, far apart,
Saint Ursule, dreaming, in soft slumber lies.
Where steals no breath of passion's tainted sighs
To mar the sweetness of her virgin heart.
The hush and stillness, sacredness impart;
From burning incense, light and fragrance rise,
Fit emblems of the love that never dies.
Whose blessed source. Thou, God, the Father art.
So lioly is the place, an angel bright.
Softly approaching, enters undefiled.
With glowing messages from heaven sent down;
Saint Ursule reads by inspiration's light:
" Awaken, princess, sainthood's chosen child,
Renounce thy earthly for thy heavenly crown."
Abigail Taylok
THE HAWTHORNES AGAIN.
!M EMORIES OF Hawthorne. By Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. Boston
and Xew York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company. 1897.
Some thirteen years ago I found great pleasure in reading, and in
writing an extensive review of, Julian Hawthorne's memoir of his
gifted father. That review was written in my regular work for the
I'liiladelphia Times, and has since been published in the Globe
Rkview.
For more than a generation I have been an intense admirer of
Xatlianiel Hawthorne, and have always been glad to say of him as
Ruskin has said of Carlyle: By all means read all that he ever wrote;
THE HAWTH0RNE8 AGAIN. 317
and whenever natural opportunity has offered I have emphasized
what to me is the simple fact that he was and that he still remains
the one clear-headed and radiant literary genius the United States
has produced.
Wendell Phillips was a greater mind, but not so well balanced;
saw everything from the stand-point of the morbid conscientiousness
of the moral reformer, and blundered right and left in his fervid
interpretations of ancient and modern history.
Emerson was as lucid of intellect, but, having entangled himself
utterly in the mazes and sea-foams of the swept waves of heterodox
theology and philosophy, and never having the creative literary
genius of Hawthorne, he constantly attempted themes beyond his
powers; hence his light is only that of the setting sun practically
darkened by sea-fog and a coming storm. Longfellow was a poet,
pure and simple, and with less breadth of mind; and there are no
other men in Xew England or in United States history whose genius
and fame can be compared with the genius and fame of the subject
of these memories.
Longfellow I met only once, when I was invited to preach in
Cambridge many years ago. Emerson I met on several occasions,
and, if I mistake not, it was my great pleasure to meet one evening
at tea in Mr. Emerson's house, I think in the year 1869, the same
dear, though then aged, Elizabeth Peabody who figures so beauti-
fully in the earlier pages of this volume.
The Rev. Dr. Peabody, if I mistake not, of the same family or of
a kindred branch, I have always considered the ablest and the most
nearly religious of that gifted coterie of ISTew England Unitarian
divines that gave the modern heresy of Socinianism and Ananism
whatever of respectability it has ever had in this land. Hawthorne
I never had the honor of meeting, and I make these personal refer-
ences mainly that the gifted author of this book and the friends
of the Hawthornes everywhere, as well as other thousands of my
readers who may not know enough of Hawthorne to love him as I
love him, may understand that I am perfectly in touch with the
author in her first paragraph, where she says: " The letters " — ^that
make up the main part of this book — " are full of sunshine, which
is not even yet in the least dimmed, and there is a pleasant chatter
of persons of whom we have heard widely in the most refined atmos-
phere this country knows."
Were I speaking with strict critical accuracy, I might perhaps
818 THE GLOBE.
condition the expression " most refined," as that, literally speaking —
as before God and the eternities — involves certain absolute and dom-
inating moral qualities in which certain other atmospheres in this
land might excel. But we will not preach in this instance.
Certain it is that the Hawthornes and the Peabodys, at the time
of the happy meetings which finally resulted in the marriage of
Nathaniel Hawthorne to Sophia Peabody, represented some of the
best blood and brain-power that had been evolved in New England
up to that hour, and, as I see it, far better than any material to be
found in New England to-day, except in its higher and more ex-
clusive Catholic circles; and this being the fact, and the fact still
further being that in the case of Nathaniel Hawthorne all the excel-
lent qualities of him went to literature, and in the case of Sophia
Peabody the leading strain took to art — a sort of early dawn of that
power we, as a nation, have ever since been aiming to attain, and
mainly with very grotesque results, so far — it is eminently becom-
ing that the modern world should listen with kindest attention to
every word that the children of Hawthorne have to say either in
elucidation of his genius or in adoration of his most beautiful and
gifted soul.
The early Puritans still inherited their religious fervor from the
church out of which their forefathers had renegaded, and nothing
is clearer than that, from one source and another, Nathaniel Haw-
thorne, among his other heavenly visions of rectitude, had been
given the vision and glory — far beyond his Puritan surroundings —
of catching something of the eternal halo of that light ineffable
which has clothed all lands with sunshine ever since that hour of
darkness, at fright of which the ancient graves gave up their dead.
In truth, when I was told, more than a year ago, that George Par-
sons Lathrop, in dramatizing, so to speak, the story of " The Scar-
let Letter," had, either for dramatic effect or whatever cause, made
Hester, the immortal heroine of that immortal story, commit suicide,
I could but exclaim: " My God, has the man gone mad? " In fact,
alike from the stand-point of literature and morals, I consider such
a denouement an eternal insult to all that Hawthorne lived and died
for, and, could I have gotten at Lathrop before he committed that
fearful blunder, I would have begged him on my knees not to dare
to mutilate one of the sacredest treasures of our history in such a
blind and dastardly manner.
I am quite aware that this is not in the ordinary tone of a review
THE HAWTH0RNB8 AGAIN. 319
of a book. But literature, to me, is the one sacredest thing in all the
ages — the word of God, as near as we can articulate it, become in-
carnate in human speech; and it is so seldom, especially in these
years of brainless legions of writers, that any man seizes and depicts
the burning energies of the moral nature of our race, that for a mere
nobody, a mere hack of modern literature, to take the flaming sword
of God's truth right out of a book and substitute therefor the flimsy
and nauseating claptrap of a modern farce-comedy, is to me a burn-
ing insult to the memory of genius, and an impertinent shame. And
I am writing this, not for Mr. Lathrop alone, but more particularly
for those thousands of pygmies, who, in our days, are writing so-
called literature, with God and the human conscience left out in
the cold.
It was Hawthorne's inimitable glory that he " kept close to the
heart of nature " — as we put it in these days — without any of the
transcendental or other cant of the thing that has made modern
speech and modern literature so unutterably despicable.
They say that the Hawthornes were and are all a little queer. In
this connection I remember reading within a year or two that some
anatomically scientific booby from Paris, whose name I have gladly
forgotten, though I think it was N"ordau, had demonstrated, on
physiological bases, that Carlyle and Euskin, in their prime, that
is, and Byron and Shelley and Coleridge and Wordsworth, and, of
course, Shakespeare, were all madmen — that is, scientifically — thus
leaving us only the machine poets, like Dryden, and the phonograph
machine prose writers, like Herbert Spencer, and his senseless eter-
nal wordiness, as among the sane writers of the British race in our
day. May God pity the light-headed Frenchman, but give him lock-
jaw and every sort of paralysis as speedily as possible.
N"o doubt we are all mad in a sense. It is a mad world, my masters,
but take our prophets and poets of the soul out of it, and it is
nothing but a cart-horse, contemptible and ugly and senseless, pile
of economic and scientific and other more palpable and devilish lies.
I think it was Mr. Lincoln who, when once approached by a
dyspeptic temperance crank with the pious gossip that Grant was
a dangerous man for the head of the army because he drank whiskey,
quietly asked of his informer if he knew the brand of whiskey that
Grant imbibed; and again, on being asked why he desired to know,
dear old Abe replied, because he would like to get it by the quantity
and feed it regularly to the rest of the army ofiicers.
320 THE GLOBE.
It is true also of human literary genius, especially as rare as that
of Hawthorne's and the other great writers named. Genius is
always crazy in the eyes and estimate of groveling, economic, and
pig-headed fools. But, to my mind, there is nothing so absolutely
insane and imbecile in all this worid as such boobies as the French-
man referred to, and such other thousands of his kind in our day
who pass for smart literary and business men. Genius is simply an
acute mental development toward some great work needed in its
day, and the ability of ceaseless labor toward that end.
I am not wandering from my point: Julian Hawthorne and his
sister combined have not half the literary genius or power that their
father had a half a century ago; still, they have the gift of writing,
and it is a gift, not a trade to be learned, like carpentering or money-
making; and, either by love of it or by inheritance, or both, they are
among our best American writers to-day, and are not mere hacks
and slaves.
Moreover, I am personally glad of the opportunity and duty
of saying this, because within the present year I have been grossly
assailed in certain Boston papers because I felt called upon to preach
a certain moral truth in the Globe Review of last March, which
was supposed to reflect strongly upon one of the parties here con-
cerned. I preach no truths, however, for the purpose of reflecting
sharply on any one, but only for the sake of the truths themselves,
and because I believe their utterance to be needed at the hour. The
younger Hawthomes are not thinkers or great writers — ^but these
are as rare as morning and evening stars.
In reviewing Julian Hawthorne's memories of his father, as pre-
viously mentioned, I found sharp fault with the piecemeal and
heterogeneous manner in which the work was done. Indeed, criti-
cisms of mine regarding this same fault in many of our American
writers have plainly forced them to improve their work during the
hist few years; and it is a pleasure to note that there is a beautiful
and skillful method in the whole treatment of the memories of Haw-
thorne in the present volume. As a matter of historic continuity,
the letters from Emerson to Sophia Peabody should have been in-
serted among the letters that appear previous to the time of her
marriage to Hawthorne. In simple truth, most of them might have
been omitted, as they represent Emerson simply in the light of a
would-be polite admirer, and the greater geniuses of New England
have never excelled in that role. The letters from George "W. Curtis
THE HAWTII0RNE8 AGAIN. 321
might have been omitted without injury to the memories. In simple
fact, Curtis was dull and awkward and artificial and unpenetrating
compared with the Hawthornes or the Peabodys, and the only serv-
ice the letters of Emerson or Curtis can be in these memories is to
show that in letter-writing, as in all other writing, Hawthorne was
by all odds the ablest, the most sincere, and the prof oundest thinker
and writer of New England in his day, as I have constantly claimed.
Now and then we come across portions of the same letters in these
memories that appeared in Julian's earlier memoir, but, as bodies
and souls and reading circles are supposed to change every seven
years — at utmost every fourteen years — the newer generation of
readers are not supposed to be familiar with books that appeared
fourteen years ago.
It seems to me that the story of the Hawthorne-Peabody court-
ship was told with finer art and less prejudice in Julian's memoir
than it is told in his sister's memories, but the episode of Haw-
thorne's engagement in and discharge from the Boston Custom
House is better told — more fully and more satisfactorily told — in
these later memories.
On the whole, the book is delightful reading, inasmuch as it re-
veals the refined social life of New England a half a century ago,
when a few at least of its better souls had not wholly gone over
to Brook Farm onion-raising, Socinian humbuggery, and absolute
vanity.
There is enough of all this, however, in these memories as they
stand. Miss Sophia Peabody is so enamored of the divine wisdom
of Emerson that she speaks of him as " The Word " — that is, the new
incarnate Logos or manifestation of God. Jules Very was expected
to be that, but nobody knows or hears of him now. He made some
fairly good poetry, but, like Thoreau, could not either square him-
self with democracy or the eternal theocracy of the Church, hence
went out in dreamy nonentity to the regions of honorificabilitudin-
itatibusque.
Indeed, the memories show the Hawthorne, Peabody, Emerson,
Hoar, etc., coteries as very largely and flippantly, though brilliantly,
made up into a mutual admiration society, without any serious sus-
picion that there ever had been or would be any diviner manifesta-
tions of the sesthetic and the eternal than these same " ladies and
gentlemen without a religion, but seeking a new one," and, for the
time being, many of them with headquarters at Salem, Concord, and
"D^^J. -KIT
322 THE GLOBE,
It is pleasant reading, but you need to be able to sift the chaff
from the wheat, to remember that many of their poor notions have
long since gone to limbo and perdition.
The book is in no sense a proper biography of Hawthorne, and
I am not aware that any such biography of Emerson or Phillips
or of Hawthorne has ever been wTitten, though I am familiar with
several amateur and antiquated attempts in this line. Indeed, the
author in this instance claims nothing of this kind. This book and
Julian's larger books, already named, will serve as faithful data for
some such biography of Hawthorne one of these days. But the
writer of such book will have to supply lots of information from his
own head or from other sources before such satisfactory biography
can see the light.
It seems that the Hawthorn es were from Maine originally — that
fertile forest of many of our living trees of American genius — and
the name clearly implies English origin, but from what part of
Maine, or where is the town mentioned, the memories say not.
Again, it is assumed that everybody knows all about the manse
where the Hawthornes lived for several years after Nathaniel's mar-
riage, but, as a matter of fact, very few people, even in New Eng-
land, know very much about the historic landmarks of Concord,
Mass.
In my review of Julian's books I supplied many points of this
kind, and hence am not moved to go over the ground again in this
notice. But Nathaniel Hawthorne, as the clearest literary genius
this land has produced, deserves to have a noble and splendid biog-
raphy written of him — a biography that shall trace his parentage,
his birthplace, his childhood, and all the lovely or hideous pano-
rama of the journey of his soul from the cradle to the grave, and
in a manner and spirit as loving as that his children have used
toward him, but with powers of discrimination that God has not
given to them.
The story of the Liverpool consulate is fairly well told in the
earlier and in this latest memoir of Hawthorne; but there was much
in all that, too, that neither one of his children has properly or fully
told. On the whole, the Hawthornes, spite of their great ability
and their own conscious superiority, seemed always a little surprised
and flattered when any of the English aristocracy showed them any
especial attention. One need not wonder at this, for in this land,
during the present century particularly, wealth is so seldom asso-
THE HAWTH0RNE8 AGAIN. 323
ciated with true refinement that the " damned literary fellow " is
not only not understood or appreciated by the wealthy, but is apt
to be at heart despised by them; whereas in England, time out of
mind, and largely in this country previous to the American Revolu-
tion, literary culture, and especially literary genius, was honored
as placing a man — where it really places him, spite of all the
plutocrats in or out of hell — viz., in the very first rank of the world's
supremest men and greatest benefactors.
And after all, what was a poor place in the Boston Custom House,
or the later Liverpool consulate, as any recognition of a man with
ability such as that possessed by Hawthorne? Think of Burns as
gauging beer-barrels for a living to eke out his pay for poetry and
the spare results of his farming, and of Hawthorne as taking the
measure and weight of shiploads of coal, etc., it being understood
that his literary wages were not enough to keep the little and quite
humble household at Concord fairly alive; and that both of them —
the two greatest men of our age — were discharged mainly because
they could not utterly sink their souls, their sublime and gifted
souls, to the level and unutterable darkness of abject slaves.
It is a fearful reflection upon the " lovers of literature " and the
governmental intelligence and patriotism of our progressive, liberal,
and democratic days.
Indeed, nothing of late has impressed me so seriously as this
same sort of poverty on the part of our own General Grant when
as yet he was lieutenant in the army. Recent biographies of him
also reveal the fact that when he was stationed in California as
Lieutenant Grant, he had not and could not command money
enough to get his wife and two children transported across the
continent to his own place of residence.
It seems natural to hear of young preachers and priests as being
in such straits because they represent, when good for anything, a
still higher order of spiritual gift and ministry, and can smile alike
at poverty and the giimaces of their wealthy critics and traducers;
but lovers of literature, publishers of literature, and patriotic lovers
of military prowess ought to see to it that no such humiliation
should come to men like Grant and Hawthorne.
I love to think of Nathaniel as splitting wood, etc., in order to
keep the human kitchen warm, at Concord, but there ought to have
been means enough to provide a dishwasher other than himself.
In a previous review, already named, I traced anew the beautiful
324 THE GLOBE.
and sentimental story of ITawthorne's early love and courtship,
hence have made only brief reference to it in this notice.
I sincerely hope that the new book will prove a source of generous
income for the devoted daughter, and certainly the publishers, as
usual, have done their part of the work with all the elegant refine-
ment that should lead to this much desired end.
Those of us who know the truth, know })erfectly that what New
England needs and has needed these two hundred years is a pente-
costal baptism of the grace of God, that may bring it proper humil-
ity and true faith; and I believe that such baptism is coming, and
that when it has come the Puritan will still lead the world. Mean-
while, it will do us all good to study these memories of some of its
brighter lights of the past, that we may the better understand the
past and know what to expect in the future.
William Henry Thorne.
ON ANGEL WINGS.
Last night an angel bore my trembling soul
Across the narrow stream that lies between
Our place of earthly banishment and Home,
And bade me stand upon the utmost verge
Of that fair Land our eyes have never seen.
But which we long for, weary, and to which
Our faltering footsteps tend, from day to day,
Till, in the Father's House, are gathered in
We, with our dear ones:
As I stood, afar —
Nearer I might not draw, nor enter in —
Age after age, eternity unrolled
In ceaseless cycles, countless, ever new,
Yet still the same; with neither yesterday.
Nor any morrow, only one to-day.
Without or mom or eve, but always noon,
An everlasting now — ^before mine eyes.
Until my vision failed, my senses reeled;
And, as a man who dreams, he falls and falls
Through spaces infinite, yet, falling, knows
It is not he that falls, but time and space
ON ANOEL WINGS. 325
That fall beneath him — even so I stood
Still on the utmost verge of that fair land —
And drew no nearer to the dazzling gates
Of the Celestial City — and beheld
The tide eternal as it flowed and flowed:
Not days, nor months, nor years, as mortal men
Keep count of time — a never-ending tide
Of what we cannot name as yet, of space,
Immensity; our halting lips, I think.
Shall learn to speak it when, at Home, we learn
The Father's speech, the speech of those we love.
So flowed the tide of space beneath my feet,
As 'neath a bird, that soars, and soars, and soars
Into the vault of blue, beyond our sight;
Could he but tell us how the spaces flow
Away, and yet away, so might I tell
How, as I stood upon the utmost verge
Of that dear Native Land we hope to reach,
The tide of space — I know no other name
For what we know not — flowed beneath my feet,
Until I knew not if I fell and fell
Through all the limitless abyss of space.
Or whether rose and rose, for evermore.
Beyond the farthest stars, or, standing, saw
Eternity unroll before mine eyes.
One never-ending now.
But, on my soul,
Lay all the burden of eternity.
And I grew weary, with a weariness
No words can imagine. Know you, how of old
Tithonus groaned beneath the weight of years
Beyond the span of mortals? He of time
Grew faint and tired, till he longed to die.
Yet could not, for the mighty gods, they say,
Cannot recall their gifts — how then should I,
That passed — yet have not passed — the stream of death,
Endure the burden of eternity?
Shall we, then, weary, in the Father's House,
When we have passed through death to life^with Him —
Beneath the weight of never-ending bliss.
826 THE GLOBE.
Of joy eternal, peace ineffable,
Communion intimate with God Himself,
The Beatific Vision? Weary? Nay,
How could one weary, holding converse sweet
With Christ, and with our Mother, with the Saints
To whom we prayed in many a time of need,
In joy and sorrow; wdth the Angel Guide
Who guarded, tended, watched the journey through.
And led our wayward footsteps home at last;
With those we love — no more misunderstood.
No fear of death, of parting, or of tears —
Weary of knowledge, growing like to His
Throughout eternity, till we shall be
" Like Him " in love, in all that makes Him God;
Shall be as gods, the sons of God, indeed
The children of the Highest. Weary? Nay,
Doth love make weary? Joy and peace untold?
Or knowledge ever growing, till it grow
Into omniscience?
Yet, the awful weight.
The burden of eternity — of peace
That passeth understanding; yea, of love
That knows nor doubt nor sorrow, death nor tears.
All that our souls can wish for, all that God
Shall freely give, that eye hath never seen.
Ear hath not heard, nor heart of man conceived —
Would surely press us down, and down, and down
Forevermore; but that omnipotence
Shall be our stay: not in His love alone.
That passeth knowledge, nor His perfect peace
That passeth understanding; nor in joy
And glory infinite; yea, not alone
In His omniscience shall He bid us share.
Who loved us unto death; but He, Himself,
The Lord of Might and Power, who hath borne
The burden of our flesh, our sins, our griefs.
The weight of all our cares; whose hand upholds
The whole of His creation, and in whom.
By whom all *creatures live — shall bear for us.
With us, the burden of eternity.
Montreal. Francis W. Gbbt.
STRAY LIGHTS ON CUBA. 327
STRAY LIGHTS ON CUBA.
The first periodical ever published in Cuba was not brought out
until 1792, and was issued gratuitously by Jose Agustin Caballero
and Manuel Zequiera, who devoted the proceeds to the support of
a free school.
In 1793 the " Patriotic " Society took charge of this publication,
and it was issued twice a week.
Some time later El Aviso changed owners and became the official
Gazette, which title it still bears, while it now belongs to the Span-
ish Government.
Freedom of press was established in 1811, and several periodicals
were started.
As late as 1774 the Spanish Government objected to the estab-
lishment of printing-presses in Cuba, and in 1790 the only one on
the island was in use at the Captain-General's office in Havana.
In 1818, through the efforts of Don Francisco Arango, Cuban
ports were opened, and this gave a new impetus to intellectual life
in Cuba.
El Pais, El Siglo, and other journals, from 1847 to 1868, devoted
their columns to clamoring for reforms for Cuba. And such prom-
inent writers as Cristobal Madan, Jose Quintin Suzarte, Gaspar
Betancourt Cisneros, and Count Pozos Dulces were frequent con-
tributors.
The Spanish party sustained El Diario de la Marina and La
Prensa, which were devoted to the Government.
Really freedom of press was only extended for a brief period in
1869, so that the unwary might betray their political leanings. And
after the mice were caught the trap was shut down. Many Cubans
gave voice to their desire for freedom of the press, and were exiled
in consequence at this time.
At the close of the war, in 1878, El Triunfo was started, and sub-
sequently El Pais, devoted to Cuban interests.
The policy of the Spanish Government has always been to im-
pede circulation of matter unfavorable to Spanish dominion. In
1853 a royal edict prohibited the introduction into Cuba of Spanish
books pubhshed abroad, thus ratifying a similar edict issued in 1837.
Another decree prohibited the circulation of the Revista de
Espafia.
328 THE GLOBE.
Americans introduced railways in Cuba in 1836, before they were
laid in Spain. Later they brought out the telegraph, cable, and
other inventions so useful in every way.
The erroneous statement has been published by some Spanish
writers that the majority of Cubans are usually lawless and degen-
erate, but the fact is that we gather from official statistics, published
in 1884, that the majority of the criminal classes in Cuba paying
the penalty of the law, were Spaniards. There were, on an average,
one criminal native to every 4,777 inhabitants, and one Spanish
felon to every 231 Spaniards. This disproportion is evident.
Havana possesses no public library belonging to the Government.
The only free library was started and sustained by the Economic
Society.
Cuba has an area of 3,804 square miles, and about 1,600,000 in-
habitants. It is divided into six provinces, viz., Habana, Pinar del
Rio, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago de Cuba,
with two territorial courts, at Habana and Puerto Principe; two
ecclesiastic, namely, a bishopric with 144 parishes, and an arch-
bishopric with 55. There are 27 judicial districts in Habana and
10 in Puerto Principe. The island has twenty-one cities, sixteen
towns, and numerous villages and hamlets.
Cuba, as a Spanish colony, is four centuries old; but up to the
sixteenth and seventeenth century there were no schools at all on
the island, and until the eighteenth century there was only one
school in which Cuban children might be taught to read and write,
and this institute belonged to the Belemitas Friars in Habana, and
was endowed by Don Juan Carballo, a native of Seville.
In 1793, during the administration of Captain-General Las Casas,
the Economic Society founded several schools, and established two
free schools. But they were hampered in their work by Bishop
Tres Palacios.
In 1817 there were only about ninety schools in nineteen towns.
In 1827 the Economic Society succeeded in getting an appropria-
tion from Government of $8,000 for schools.
Caballero, Varela, and other eminent Cubans endeavored to pro-
mote education by every means in their power.
Up to 1836, the State, which drew a revenue of twenty-five million
from Cuba, did not expend a penny toward educational purposes.
Meanwhile Cuba sustained Fernando Po, as well as several penal
stations.
STRAY LIGHTS ON CUBA. 329
In 1871 Ramon Araistegui advised the Government to crush
learning as the fountain-head of revolutionary ideas and aspirations
for freedom.
Cuha did not lack patriotic men, and liberal-minded Spaniards
who had made their fortunes on the island, and two of these, Dr.
Salvador Zapata and Don Francisco Hoyos, endowed several free
schools.
The Cubans, Dr. Bruno Zayas, Don Jose Eugenio More, Dofla
Josefa Santa Cruz de Oviedo, and Dofla Marta Abreu de Estevez
also liberally contributed to the endowment of free schools.
The policy of administrating Cuba in Madrid, thousands of miles
away, by ministers and statesmen totally unacquainted with the
people or their needs, has proved fatal to Cuban interests, while
native Cubans for years were excluded from having a voice in pub-
lic matters. Corruption and abuses were the upshot of this short-
sighted policy.
In England and the United States written laws are scarce, while
Spanish Jurisprudence has an ample supply, with poor judges to
boot. All legal functionaries are appointed by the Colonial Min-
ister in Madrid, from the highest to the lowest.
Abuses crop up fast, and lawsuits are like a cancer eating away
the flesh. The luckless individual who goes to law often loses his
whole estate to pay lawyers' fees. Reams of stamped paper and
endless red tape are required in the simplest transaction, while the
course of law is tedious and slow.
Owing to constitutional reforms in Spain, Cuba enjoyed some
political privileges in 1837. From 1837 to 1879 she had no voice iri
co-legislative bodies; and from 1879, although Cuba had repre-
sentatives at the Cortes, they spoke to empty benches.
In 1810 King Ferdinand VII. authorized Cuban deputies at the
Cortes, one deputy to each town. During a brief period the island
enjoyed some rights, and the military and civil courts were separate,
while the tension of the policy of centralization was slackened.
In 1813 Don Francisco Arango was elected representative from
Cuba, and to his efforts were due important economic reforms in
the administration of that island. But the constitutional system
was abolished in 1814.
After Riego's revolutionary movement, Cubans again enjoyed con-
stitutional rights, and in 1820 several Cubans were elected deputies
to the Cortes. In 1822 the learned Don Felix Varela was chosen
330 THE GLOBE.
deputy, and Cubans and Spaniards on the island began to be di-
vided into two parties.
In 1823 the Bolivar revolutionary movement was crushed, a
movement aided by Venezuelans who desired to establish a free re-
public for Cuba.
Liberal institutions were suppressed under the Bonaparte dynasty,
and even after the French invader was driven from the throne Cuba,
did not enjoy any representation at the Cortes, and military rule
prevailed on the island.
In 1836 the constitution was again proclaimed in Spain, while
the tyrannical Captain-General Tacon ground the people under an
iron heel in Cuba, and banished from Santiago de Cuba General
Lorenzo for proclaiming the constitution. Spain had one repre-
sentative allowed to every 50,000 inhabitants, while Cuba only had
four for her total population.
Yarela and Saco were circumvented in all their plans for reform,
and the latter was exiled. But in 1854 the Spanish statesman,
Olazaga, and others, pleaded for Cuba and her rights. Julian de
Zulueta and Alcala Galiano also advocated political representation
for Cuba without avail.
Captain-General Francisco Serrano and Captain-General Do-
mingo Dulces were mild rulers from 1860 to 1865, and were duly
appreciated by the Cubans. The former interested himself in the
Senate on their behalf, and 20,000 Cubans signed a memorial thank-
ing him for his services.
After the Treaty of Zanjon, Cuba was allowed one deputy to
every 50,000 inhabitants, so she had twenty-four deputies in all.
But, owing to some hocus-pocus, the majority were in favor of
Spanish dominion, and the Cuban deputies had a hard time to make
themselves heard amid the clamor of their opponents. But they
breasted the waves with undaunted courage, in spite of disappoint-
ment and defeat.
Laws were enacted to forbid carrying firearms in Cuba, or any
means of personal defense, unless by paying a heavy tax, although
the country was overrun with marauders. At the same time, any
one who harbored an outlaw, or allowed him to pass by without
arresting him, was considered an abettor of the criminal.
According to the statistician Jos6 del Perojo, Cuba has given
137 millions to the Spanish exchequer. During the war of 1868 to
1818 Spain levied a subsidy of eighty-two millions of dollars on
THE SONNETS OF KEATS. 331
the island. In 1880 Cuba paid forty millions into the Spanish
treasury.
Few, if any, appropriations are made for Cuba. Public roads
and works of all kinds are neglected. Until 1871 no other except
the Catholic faith was tolerated in Cuba. Skepticism has increased
among Cuban youth, and some writers attribute this to the greed
for gold among the clergy, and the fact that they do not practice
what they preach.
The enforcement of the edict regarding civil marriage was the
cause of disagreement between the civil and ecclesiastical courts in
Habana. The Catholic Church in Cuba refused copies of baptismal
papers or access to the parish registers to parities about to contract
a civil marriage, as the Church does not sanction the civil rite un-
less accompanied by the religious ceremony as well. Neither does
the Catholic Church countenance divorce.
"Free Cuba" in the constitution drawn up September, 1896,
not only authorizes divorce, but allows the parties to remarry with-
in a year after the bond has been severed.*
New York, Elizabeth Foster.
THE SONNETS OF KEATS.
THE POETRY OF EARTH IS CEASING NEVER.'
In one of the latest of his forty sonnets Keats says:
" by dull rhymes our English must be chain'd
And, like Andromeda, the sonnet sweet
Fetter'd, in spite of pained loveliness."
I venture the remark that the restraints imposed by the form of
this class of poetic compositions serve to check his disposition to
employ a redundant affluence of expression and allusion, which
weakens and renders tedious, not to say sometimes unintelligible
to the average reader, some of his poetry. In writing his sonnets,
subdued by their arbitrary peculiarity of construction, his careful
jealousy not to use " dead leaves in the bay wreath crown " resulted
happily in his making for his muse " garlands of her own " which
will never fade.
*In my judgment this clause alone is enough to send "Free Cuba" to
hell.— The Editor.
332 THE GLOBE.
Keats is comparatively little read, which is much to be deplored,
and I am afraid that of only one of his sonnets can it be said that
it is well known; but surely the extraordinary beauty of that one
ought to be a sufficient recommendation of its companions. The
reader will remember that when the poet heard Chapman, in his
version of Homer, " speak out loud and bold," he felt like
" some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when, with eagle eyes,
He stared at the Pacific — and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise —
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
The grand simplicity and power of these lines will serve to intro-
duce a suggestive rather than an exhaustive review of other sonnets
by the same hand.
I am not rash in claiming that Keats's word-painting of natural
scenes is perfect artistry. The opening day and its herald bird in-
spire most felicitous expression, as when, " free as the sky-search-
ing lark and as elate," he observes the pretty creature shake " the
tremulous dew from his lush clover covert," early, as first the sun
" kist away the tears that fill'd the eyes of Morn." I am reminded
of times when, in my own boyhood, my baffled sight tried to trace
the upward course of the sweet birds rising into the very heavens
and descending in quick and irregular succession, again to leave
their dewy coverts for the fields of light, all the earth and air melodi-
ous with their fluttering rapture.
" ' 'Tis very sweet,' says our poet,
^ to look into the fair
And open face of heaven — to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.* "
The " feathery gold of even " impressed his imagination not less
strongly, and the " unnumbered sounds " heard in that season of
contemplation:
" The songs of birds — ^the whispering of the leaves —
The voice of waters — ^the great bell that heaves
With solemn sound — and thousand others more,
That distance of recognizance bereaves."
And,
" Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel — an eye
THE SONNETS OF KEATS. 333
Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by."
How clean-cut this bit of description, which may find fit hanging-
place between two more ambitious canvases:
"alleys, where the fir-tree drops its cone,
Where robins hop, and fallen leaves are sere."
Once more:
" Oh! how I love, on a fair summer's eve.
When streams of light pour down the golden west.
And on the balmy zephyrs tranquil rest
The silver clouds, far — far away to leave
All meaner thoughts, and take a sweet reprieve
From little cares; to find, with easy quest,
A fragrant wild, with Nature's beauty drest.
And there into delight my soul deceive."
The temptation is strong, to linger with the poet in his wonder-
fully expressed appreciation of what to him, alas! was but a brief
joy in the loveliness of Nature. Deep shadows rested early upon
his young life:
" on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.'
In another passage he says:
■ " I mav cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain."
For a time, however, he seems to have realized something of the
strength and physical enjoyment of youth, looking on life with the
appreciative eyes of adolescence. His social impulses were strong
and dominating, and his capability of ardent friendship only less
intense than the flaming passion which, later, consumed his de-
clining powers. A sonnet to Solitude, remarkable for atrength of
natural description, placed him in a very amiable light as a friend:
" the sweet converse of an innocent mind.
Whose words are images of thoughts refined.
Is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of humankind.
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.'
334 THE GLOBE.
A gentleman having sent him roses, he acknowledged the gift in
words which the charmed world of literature will not willingly let
die. Rambling " in the happy fields ^^ he had seen
" A fresh-blown musk-rose; 'twas the first that threw
Its sweets upon the summer: gi-aceful it grew
As is the wand that Queen Titania wields.
And, as I feasted on its fragrancy,
I thought the garden-rose it far excell'd;
Bat when, 0 Wells! thy roses came to me.
My sense with their deliciousness was spell'd;
Soft voices had they, that with tender plea
Whisper'd of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell'd."
Leaving some friends at an early hour he desires a golden pen:
" a tablet whiter than a star.
Or hand of hymning angel, when 'tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween
that, thus provided.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending.
Let me write down a line of glorious tone.
And full of many wonders of the spheres."
Then he adds:
" For what a height my spirit is contending!
'Tis not content so soon to be alone."
Intimations of a gentle domestic disposition are in striking con-
trast with the ebullitions of disappointed passion in some of his
latest words. What could be sweeter than the f ollo\ving description
of fireside enjoyment? It is found in a sonnet addressed to his
brothers:
" Small, busy flames play through the fresh-laid coals.
And their faint cracklings o'er our silence creep
Like whispers of the household gods that keep
A gentle empire o'er fraternal souls."
In another place he speaks of
the love, so voluble and deep,
That aye at fall of night our care condoles."
If, here and there, in what remains of Keats's sonnets, regard-
THE SONNETS OF KEATS. 335
ing them in the order given them by Lord Houghton, whose care-
ful editing calls for nothing but appreciation, traces of the short-
lived exercise and enjoyment of his physical powers are to be found,
the suggestion accompanies them, so far as I have observed, that
such bodily activity as he manifested was due rather to the domina-
tion of intellectual restlessness than to real robustness. It could
not be of long continuance that the unconscious endurance of
fatigue was the effect of spiritual buoyancy rather than of bodily
vigor. The most robust, so to speak, of his sonnets is less remark-
able as a description of youthful strength than of an absorbed and
masterful condition of mind and emotion, under the force of which
he was insensible to such bodily weariness as a young man less in-
tellectually and spiritually gifted would have felt in the like cir-
cumstances. He felt no weaiiness because he rode in the chariot
of high mental exploit and spiritual gratification. The sonnet be-
fore me is one of great beauty and its interest is heightened im-
measurably by the personal fascination of the glorious youth who
penned it:
" Keen, fitful gusts are whispering here and there
Among the bushes, half leafless and dry;
The stars look very cold about the sky.
And I have many miles on foot to fare;
Yet feel I little of the cool, bleak air.
Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily,
Or of the silver lamps that burn on high.
Or of the distance from home's pleasant lair:
For I am brimful of the friendliness
That in a little cottage I have found;
Of fair-hair'd Milton's eloquent distress.
And all his love for gentle Lycid' drown'd,
Of lovely Laura in her light green dress.
And faithful Petrarch gloriously crown'd."
Perhaps, by the matured literary judgment, those sonnets depict-
ing female loveliness, which bear internal evidence of having antici-
pated that "one profound passion" — to quote from his noble
biographer — in which his life went out, are regarded as the best.
As an example I quote from " On a Picture of Leander
>? .
" Come hither, all sweet maidens soberly,
Down-looking aye, and with a chasten'd light
Hid in the fringes of your eyelids white.
And meekly let your fair hands joined be.
336 THE GLOBE.
As if so gentle that ye could not see,
Untouch'd, a victim of your beauty bright;
Sinking away to his young spirit's night,
Sinking bewilder'd 'mid the dreary sea."
When a young lady sent him a laurel crown his gallantry tri-
umphed over a weary weight of failing life:
" Fresh morning gusts have blown away all fear
From my glad bosom. Now from gloominess
I mount forever — not an atom less
Than the proud laurel shall content my bier."
A brother poet had written that
dear eyes are dearer far
Than those that mock the hyacinthine bell."
Keats thereupon playfully champions the blue eyes, and with a
grace and spirit which have no modification in melancholy:
" Blue! 'Tis the life of heaven — the domain
Of Cynthia — the wide palace of the sun —
The tent of Hesperus, and all his train —
The bosomer of clouds, gold, gray, and dun.
Blue! 'Tis the life of waters — ocean
And all its vassal streams: pools numberless
May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can
Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness.
Blue! gentle cousin of the forest-green.
Married to green in all the sweetest flowers —
Forget-me-not, the bluebell, and, that queen
Of secrecy, the violet; what strange powers
Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great
When in an Eye thou art alive with fate! "
Needless to say that Keats revelled in literature, as in nature, the
primal fount of his inspiration, and that his taste was true and ex-
quisite, j
"How many bards gild the lapses of time!
A few of them have ever been the food
Of my delighted fancy — I could brood
Over their beauties, earthly or sublime;
And often, when I sit me down to rhyme.
These will in throngs before my mind intrude:
But no confusion, no disturbance rude
Do they occasion; 'tis a pleasing chime."
THE SONNETS OF KEATS. 337
Of the few, Shakespeare, of whom he is said to have carried
habitually the minor poems in his pocket, Milton, and Spenser seem
to have been his favorites:
" In Spenser's halls he stray'd, and bowers fair,
Culling enchanted flowers; and he flew
With daring Milton through the fields of air/'
Dying young, he took no strong grip of the great events which
characterized the few years of his life; but his sympathies were
democratic and generous — there is evidence of this in his sonnets —
and in Keats there is no trace of that cynical affectation of want
of feeling which stunts and spoils much clever literary work in our
day, as in his. The " great name alone " of " good Kosciusko " was
to him " a full harvest whence to reap high feeling " ; and in the
common people he noted with admiration their quickness to see
and applaud real worth. Where, he observes:
" we think the truth least understood.
Oft may be found a ^ singleness of aim '
That ought to frighten into hooded shame
A money-mongering, pitiable brood."
In words of prophetic strength he adds:
" What when a stout unbending champion awes
Envy and mahce to their native sty?
Unnumbered souls breathe out a still applause.
Proud to behold him in his country's eye."
The restlessness of the time in which he lived was prophetic to
him of a great and noble future:
" Other spirits there are standing apart
Upon the forehead of the age to come;
These, these will give the world another heart
And other pulses. Hear ye not the hum
Of mighty workings? —
Listen awhile, ye nations, and be dumb."
Proud persistency in work, retarded by bodily suffering, even in
the very shadow of death, and the consciousness of his great powers
di^ose of the hackneyed quotation from Byron that Keats's soul
was " snuffed out by an article." In fact, the keen sword of his spir-
itual activity was wearing out the scabbard of his physical life years
before the end came.
338 TUB GLOBE.
His best work was not his last work, regarded as a whole. The
morbid ravings of hopeless passion are in pitif nl contrast with Keats
at his strongest; but those take up little space in a book of poetry
much to be loved and confidently to be recommended to the student
of literature; and there is, at least, the language of real passion here:
" 0! let me have thee whole — all — all — be mine!
That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest
Of love, your kiss — those hands, those eyes divine,
That warm, white, luscent, million-pleasur'd breast —
Yourself — your soul — in pity give me all.
Withhold no atom's atom, or I die;
Or, living on, perhaps, your wretched thrall
Forget, in the mist of idle misery,
Life's purposes — the palate of my mind
Losing its gust, and my ambition blind! "
In his last sonnet Keats writes like a master, with superb dignity
of thought and expression, associated with the intense affection and
, emotion which were at once the strength and the weakness of a
great poet.
" Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel forever its soft fall and swell
Awake forever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death."
Laying down my pen, I feel that a leisurely talk about Keats's
sonnets finds its justification in the hope that readers may be at-
tracted to them by this taste of their quality. While they are the
product of genius in some directions immature, I think they can
be regarded, nevertheless, as among the best sonnets in the lan-
guage, a good proportion of them being gems perfectly cut, elab-
orated with the severe skill of the master poet, and enkindled with
the luster of first-water brilliants. Keats was, as a student, perhaps
too little indebted to learning, in the conventional sense of the word,
GEMS BY THE WAYSIDE. 339
but he assimilated with a healthful digestion such of the great
books of the world as he read in their English original or in trans-
lation; and he made that supreme use of them which, enriching
and chastening endowments of language, understanding, imagina-
tion, and sensibility rarely equaled in the natural gifts of poets,
added his name to the still brief roll of writers for all time.
New YorJc. Henry G. Taylor.
THE WONDROUS EXCELLENCE.
What shalt thou wear to-night? — that perfect dress,
The color of the ocean waves that stand
In brief curled poise to break upon the strand
And waste themselves in foamy loveliness?
A frill of rich, rare lace shall softly press
The fair, full throat; where wrists meet shapely hand
A curiously fashioned golden band
Shall circle, quaintly chased and lusterless.
No flashing jewels, lady, shalt thou wear —
Such ill befit a beauty so serene;
Enough for thee the charm of innocence.
I'll put some fresh, pure marguerites in thy hair —
Eed roses would bedim its sunny sheen —
Then tremble at thy wondrous excellence.
Gardiner, Me. A. T. Schuman".
GEMS BY THE WAYSIDE.
They tell me that rubies are becoming as plentiful as pebbles in a
sand-hill; and doubtless many a flower is born to blush compara-
tively unseen.
Here is Egan, for instance, in a bit of patchwork story in the
last July issue of the Rosary Magazine. Never mind the story. The
abbe and Laurent — the little hero of the tale — are in quest of health
for Laurent.
" At sunset they reached the sea. The brown beach was tinted
with vermilion, which ran into glassy crimson where the light
340 THE GLOBE.
touched the wetter sand; the sea itself was of the lightest scarlet,
and the horizon was ablaze with purple fire."
If you care for color or glory straight from the hand of God, here
they are as few mortals can reproduce them.
Dear, lovely Egan is a poet of the light of heaven and the love
of God; and why he will ever make anything else of himself, and
why his friends will try to make anything else of him, is to me a
mystery to be explained only by the devil and his angels of these
thrice confounded times.
And here is Stoddard — I mean Charles "Warren, of course; the
only Stoddard — author of " South Sea Idyls," etc.
When my own work is too serious for me, when Shakespeare is
too brilliant, Carlyle too intense, Emerson too prosaic, Byron too
majestic. Browning too clever, Tennyson too exquisite, and the mod-
em crowds of Howells & Co. too everlastingly dull and stupid and
artificial and clumsy and contemptible for help or entertainment,
I take down my Stoddard — dear, dainty, fluent, and melodious Stod-
dard— and am with the gods again.
I open at random at pages 142-3 — " Pearl Hunting," etc. — and:
" At last we turned our prow and shot through a low arch in a cliff,
so low we both ducked our heads instinctively, letting the vines
and parasites trail over our shoulders and down our backs.
" It was a dark passage into an inner cave lit from below — a cave
filled with an eternal and sunless twilight that was very soothing
to our eyes as we came in from the glare of sea and sky.
" A canoe-length from where we floated a clear rill stole noise-
lessly from above, mingling its sweet waters with the sea; on the
roof of our cavern fruits flourished, and we were wholly satisfied."
So we are " soothed " and " satisfied," and it continues thus, page
after page, till the weary eyelids close upon the gaudy and noisy
world of day, and dream of visions of eternal peace.
" How fresh seems the memory of this journey! Yet its place
is with the archives of the past. I seem to breathe the incense of
orange-flowers and to hear the whisper of distant waterfalls as I
write "
And what I could tell of the new Hawaiian infamy if my hands
and lips were only free!
I understand that they keep Stoddard in a gold cage — so to speak
— ^in Washington, doors all open, of course, and feed him on sugar
trusts and cockle-shells, like a bird of paradise; but it was not out
GEMS BY THE WAYSIDE. 341
of such conditions that the " South Sea Idyls " rose like rainhow-
vapors into the storm-tossed sunlight of time.
Dear hoys! the day is far spent and the night is at hand, hence
it hehooves us to know well the finer stars in all the constellations,
lest, perchance, our compass should fail us and the Pole Star fade
away.
There is another hook on my shelves which I take down occa-
sionally when these modern hours are aweary of the cant of the
market-place and the rattle of the golden chains of hell.
To-day I open at page 334 of " The Memoir of John A. Dahl-
gren," written by his gifted widow, Madeline Vinton Dahlgren; but
the admiral is here telling his own story. And what I notice about
all the writings of gifted men like Dahlgren — from Caesar to
Moltke, to Sherman, and, in less measure, to Grant — is the clear
succinctness with which they always tell their story. In a word,
even in literature, their's is the highest art which is nature at her
best, and all alone. The date is:
" Friday, May 24 (1861). — About four o'clock the regiment (Col-
onel Ellsworth's once famous regiment of Zouaves) divided between
the Baltimore and Vernon, steamed down the river. I was in the
James Guy, to assist if necessity arose. Coloriel Ellsworth was with
me, but finally concluded to go in the Vernon, and I passed him
in. The day broke fairly just as we got to the wharf at Alexandria.
The Zouaves jumped ashore, and the rattle of musketry was heard.
It seemed as if there was to be a fight, and the howitzer of my own
steamer was got ready; but it proved to be only the alarm shots of
the sentries and a return from the Zouaves. The whole regiment
passed quietly ashore, and Alexandria was taken."
How strange it all sounds to us now in these corrupt days of
plutocratic peace. Colonel Ellsworth, musketry, in dead earnest,
Alexandria taken, and, same day Colonel Ellsworth killed — a sort
of first martyr in that great struggle which forced the sacrifice of
a million noble men — and all for what? — that black negroes, being
" educated," should parade the earth with all the conceit of white
fools, and eventually, after another generation of tariff-tinkers and
wealthy thieves, this great and glorious nation should at last have
for its certain and heaven-born guidance that despicable and dam-
nable thing they call the Dingley Tariff bill.
I hate war as simply a bloody parody on Christianity; but I would
rather once more hear and see the tramp of armies through this
land, even though I were drafted and forced to fight against my
342 THE GLOBE.
will, than to see the United States of America ruled by such gangs
of money-grabbers and land-grabbers and trust sharks and tariff
tinkers and contemptible nobodies as rule us to-day.
While prowling for gems with which to adorn this little article,
what should come to my office, July 7, 1897, but the July issue of
Donahoe's Magazine, with its brand new editor, Mr. H. A. Adams;
all in paint and feathfers, in fine style; and having promised a good
friend of his that if I saw anything worth praising in his work I
would say a good word for the new editor, I said to myself, Here's
your chance; and, spite of the heat, I plunged into Donahoe's, for
July, looking for gems — ^but they were not there.
Nothing is more difficult than for a man who has been trained
for the gospel ministry — no matter if he has a smattering of literary
taste — to become a secular editor, or a secular person in any sense.
I have tried it for twenty-five years and know whereof I affirm.
Mr. Adams has my prof oundest sympathy. I have heard of him,
now and then, as a lecturer on Carlyle, etc., before the higher classes
in some Catholic convents, but I never saw a word of his in print
till I found DonaJioe's for July, 1897.
There is a certain amateur gush about his leading editorial para-
graphs, and the story he attempts in the body of Donahoe^s for July
may find readers, but I beg to be excused. Certain people may
take this gush for brilliancy, but it is far from that.
If Mr. Adams had hired himself out as a sub-editor, to write edi-
torial paragraphs on some daily paper for a few years, he might have
worked off some of the exuberant freshness of quasi-transcendental-
ism, now all too apparent in the Donahoe paragraphs, and he might
have gotten himself down somewhere near to his own ideal of
" facts " and common sense.
The nearest I find to a gem in these paragraphs — and that is a
long way off — is as follows:
" Confidence has been scarce of late; talk about it, however, is
a drug on the market. This dear old land of ours will come out
all right; not through some shallow, and therefore heard-of, ' lead-
ers of the people,' but in spite of any and all such; not through
some miracle of legislation, but because God sleeps not. And
therefore," —
I will finish the paragraph by adding that — " therefore " — " this
dear old land of ours " will first go to the devil — if indeed " this dear
old land of ours " has not already gone there, neck and heels, in-
OEMS BY THE WAYSIDE. 343
eluding Ireland, Storer and Co., with Keane as a new Charon of the
Styx. And " this dear old land of ours " is simply silly affectation.
But I was speaking of gems. The only change in Donahoe's under
Mr. Adams's management that seems to me worthy of notice under
this title may be found in pages 41 to 56, inclusive, of said July
issue.
These sixteen pages are devoted to fairly good pictures of some
fairly good-looking young ladies — ^younger and older — who have
been, at one time or another in their lives, connected as students
with Visitation convents in the United States.
This feature I consider a great improvement on those pages of
crude and half-nude Catholic base-ball teams and played-out
theatricals that used to adorn its popular pages. Then there is very
little comment in these sixteen pages, so the fairly good-looking
ladies, younger and older, speak quite eloquently for themselves;
and there can be no doubt that, if MR. Adams means to continue
this process of illustration until he embraces — that is, illustrates —
all the fairly good-looking ladies, younger and older, that have
been, at one time or another, connected as students with all the
convents in the United States, he will become quite popular with
the many ladies concerned. This is a fine outlook.
But God pity the convert from the Anglican clergy, or from the
clergy of any other Protestant denomination, who has to depend
upon this species of claptrap to make*a leading Catholic magazine
in these degenerate days.
Sometimes I am inclined to think that it were better to preach
Christ with sleeves rolled up, even from a Methodist pulpit, not to
speak of preaching the Eternal from the dignified pulpits of Angli-
canism, than to fall to the contemptible level of lay lecturer and
moonshine editor of a muck-heap and brainless so-called literary
Catholic magazine.
But every fellow to his trade, and the devil take the hindmost!
Meanwhile let us look for gems. At this point I looked in my
desk and found "An Opal," by Ednah Proctor Clarke, and im-
mediately said to myself. Why here is a gem for your article.
" The Opal " is a little book of poems, published by Lamson,
Wolffe & Co., Boston, New York, and London. On looking it over,
I remembered that it had come to me months ago from a good
friend of the author's, had been put away for safe keeping and an
early notice, with result as stated; but it is a real gem, and here is
VOL. VII.— 23.
344 THE GLOBE.
one of its most brilliant scintillations. The author calls it
" Sappho " :
" Where the Leucadian air its fragrance drowned
In the salt sweep and tingle of the sea;
Where the harsh cliff his bosom yearningly
Spreads grassy-soft, she lay, whom Lesbos crowned.
Careless of laurel, her warm hair, unbound.
Crept down her side, slow-lingering, to her knee,
The light wind lifted it — then tenderly
Fingered her idle harp with pleading sound.
She heard it not, nor heard the free delight
Of rhythmic waves: earth's music to her ears
Was mute; she only saw on that lone height
A boy's dark eyes, and the long empty years.
Her lips sobbed: " Phaon! " — through her fingers white
The leaning, thirsty grasses drank her tears."
According to tradition, Sappho was a sort of Greek combined
Am61ie Rives and Ella Wheeler, .without their other names, and
with more music in her soul than any dozen of our American
beauties that have ever attempted song, but instead of writing cheap
novels and poems of passion for cash, and just to show how the
quick and the dead would love if they only dared, she dared to love
— dared to die for her love, and so became immortal.
The fragments of Sappho's poetry that have come down to us —
true or false — seem to indicate that she was as superior in poetry to
our modern girls and women,, as Aristotle was superior to Lord Bacon
and our modem claptrap scientists; as Plato was superior in philos-
ophy to our modem transcendental and other philosophers, and as
Phidias was superior in sculpture to our modern mechanics, who
work in mud and marble and call their work art. At all events,
our good friend, Ednah Proctor Clarke, has made rather a striking
picture of this poor passionate Greek girl, and so I am glad to put
it among the gems of this article.
At this point I remembered that two other little volumes of
poems had been laid away with Miss Clarke's for special mention.
Now we will select a gem from each and bid the books and their
gifted authors God-speed in their glinting sunshine work among
the haunts of men.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, of Gardiner, Me., is already known
to and appreciated by the discriminating readers of the Globe Re-
OEMS BY THE WAYSIDE. 345
VIEW. Some of the best of the poems that go to make up " The
Torrent and the Night Before," recently pubhshed for the author,
have ah'eady appeared in this magazine; but I select one of the
new ones, and one which is very characteristic of the quick and
subtle gleaminess of the author's mind and of his great gifts as a
poet. He calls it
SUPKEMACY.
" There is a drear and lonely tract of hell
From all the common gloom removed afar:
A flat, sad land it is, where shadows are.
Whose lorn estate my verse may never tell.
I walked among them and I knew them well:
Men I had slandered on life's little star
For churls and sluggards; and I knew the scar
Upon their brows of woe ineffable.
But as I went majestic on my way,
Into the dark they vanished, one by one.
Till, with a shaft of God's eternal day.
The dream of all my glory was undone —
And with a fool's importunate dismay,
I heard the dead men singing in the sun."
This sonnet indicates alike the author's clear-cut work and the
somewhat startling boldness of his thought. The one feature is
clearly the result of many years of closest study and application;
the other a part of that transcendental mood into which New Eng-
land has fallen since its amateur idolatry of Emerson became the
ruling fad of the hour. It is due to the position the Globe has
taken from its first issue until now, as it is due the gifted author
here under review, that while admitting and welcoming his beau-
tiful art I should call attention to the limited — doubting, if not
utter — unbelieving character and quality of his mind.
I do not blame him for this. It is simply the natural inheritance
of two hundred years of down-east Protestant skepticism; and the
same dry-rot, unfortunately, has invaded and ruined the work of
most of our younger American writers.
I believe that the Scotch parson and novelist, Maclaren, has
recently invented a creed that one may well dismiss with pitjj and
laughter. But Robinson and all New England — except the Catholic
portion of it — has passed the Scotchman's halting-place long ago
and are all in the depths of absolute negation.
346 THE GLOBE.
Mr. Kobinson has a sonnet that he calls " Credo," and here are
its first two lines:
" I cannot find my way: there is no star
In all the shrouded heavens anywhere."
Poor, deluded, hoodwinked, deceived, misled, unguided, self-willed,
but sternly persistent New England! God pity her, and hasten the
newer pentecostal day that shall forever burn the blackened scales
from her eyes. Mr. Robinson is a genuine chip of this New Eng-
land block — hard of unbelief.
Finally, in this collection of neglected gems by the wayside, here
is a little volume of verse called " The Promise of the Ages," also
printed for the author, Mr. Charles A. Keeler, of Berkeley, Cali-
fornia.
The title of Mr. Keeler's booklet indicates the large, outreaching
ambition of his mind. " The Promise of the Ages " is an extended
poem covering 56 pages and dealing with the various phases of
human and mystic love — that is, the love of certain ideals of life,
and thought, and of love itself, throughout all of which, alas! one
finds the lack of pure and exalted love for a faith in the one supreme
ideal of all human and divine existence; hence again, while wel-
coming all that is beautiful in Mr. Keeler's work, I am bound alike,
as a friend and a critic, to point out this supreme lack of the new
poet's genius.
From the first issue of the Globe to the last I have again and
again — sometimes with reasoning and with pleading, at other times
with vehemence and sarcasm — called the attention of our younger
literary men and poets to the fact that all the great mastei*s of song,
time out of mind, have had strong and abiding faith in the Eternal,
and that no literary work in prose or verse is worthy the name of
true literature that shows lack of this faith.
In truth, I have said as much as this personally to the two splen-
did boys whose charming work I am here noticing, and they silently
assent to the truth, but themselves are unable to believe. It is all
a part of the world-wide curse of modern Protestantism that now
blinds the eyes of the aspiring children of men.
Here is a new taste of Mr. Keeler's work. I say new, for poems
of his also have appeared in this magazine. We open the book on
page 25, where, via the poet and his ideal prophet —
" Triumphantly the task of time looks backward o'er its span.
And sees the tender love of God, fruition find in man.
OEMS BY THE WAYSIDE. 347
His words upon the silent air took wing,
The heedless wind their accents hurrying
Afar where thought their echo scarce could tell, ,
As, note by note, to nothingness they fell; ,
But Percival with busy brain had caught
Each syllable with earth's far pageant fraught,
And cherished all its wonder. Age by age
Had earth unrolled each mighty figured page.
Like some old Sibyl's pond'rous book of fate.
Where time had writ what death might consecrate.
And this was truth, — this faith revealed in stone.
In tablets graved ere Moses stood alone
Before his God, to learn what high decree
Should vest him with divine supremacy, —
This faith the dead past bore to life again, —
This growth, this striving, this enduring pain!
So Percival believed, and so he said;
The Prophet, musing, shook his hoary head:
' Thy mind too easily is set at rest;
Too soon wouldst thou conclude thy endless quest.
With tireless mind press on, nor rest content
Till thou hast gained the soul's far firmament.
With endless steps still tread the paths divine.
Though doubt withhold the light of hope benign.
With boundless yearning spurn the depths you've trod,
And climb the dizzy heights where waits your God! ' "
It is tender as twilight and beautiful as day, but lacks that eternal
harmony with the eternal reason of the universe, which I have
called attention to in connection with the quotations from Mr. Rob-
inson, though Mr. Keeler comes much nearer to faith than Mr.
Robinson. Now I consider these two young men far and away the
ablest poets among the younger generation of singers in the United
States to-day. By the younger generation I mean the men and
women among us under or about the age of thirty years. To those
who know the one and not the other, or who know of the one and
not of the other, and to those who may not know either one of
them personally, or who may not even know of either one of these
two young men, it will be of interest to learn that though one is
a resident of Maine and the other of California, as stated, they have
many points of personal resemblance.
Both are tall — that is, above the average height — both have
straight and strong black hair, both are quiet and unassuming in
manners, both have clear-cut and intellectual rather than fashion-
348 THE GLOBE,
able and worldly faces, both are a little angular and as yet iin-at-
home-like in the ways of the world, both are well-born and bred and
well connected, and both are as conscious of their as yet unrevealed
and reserved power as they are of their present comparatively un-
recognized position in the world of letters.
Of the two, Mr. Eobinson has the finer and more finished touch
in his work, but Mr. Keeler has the finer genius and the more sen-
sitive soul. Twenty years from now, when I am dead and gone,
these young men, if they live and pursue their chosen art — aa they
seem determined to do — the United States will have two poets well
wortliy of the name. And if heaven will only let the eternal sun-
shine of its own ineffable mystery and glory in upon their aspiring
dreams, the next generation will have American poetry compared
with which most of the poor piping of these hard days will sound
like the relentless sharpening of a very dull saw.
William Henry Thorne.
SCHEMERS AND VICTIMS.
HOW THE ORDER OF GRAND SHARKS DOUBLED THEIR HOLDXNGft
Forty-odd farmers formed a corporation for the purpose of build-
ing a school-house, court-house, some bridges, and making other
improvements. Their crops were not sufficient to pay all at once,
so, through their, agents, they issued due-bills for a stipulated
amount of wheat and corn yearly, with the excess agreed upon for
interest. The ratio was one bushel of wheat to two bushels of corn,
and the debt was payable in either or part of both, at the option
of the farmers, that being the custom based upon long experience.
For several years payments were made without embarrassment, be-
yond what they had figured upon as the natural result of the vary-
ing of the crop output. When either the corn or the wheat was
scarcer than the other they paid in the mora abundant, until the
surplus over their own use was exhausted to the condition of the
surplus of the other; and so very little fluctuation in value was
experienced, and no great injustice was done.
Meantime the speculators who had taken their due-bills had been
studying nights, devising plans to further increase their incomes.
As shrewd men, they took the existing facts for their basis, and
r
SCHEMERS AND VICTIMS. 349
they saw that under the contract there was no chance for them to
speculate beyond their legitimate interest. They often consulted
oyer the matter and exchanged plans. At last, one night, one of
them jumped from his bed in an ecstasy of delight. He was as elated
as an inventor who had struck the missing thought in his new
patent. He couldn't wait for the regular lodge night of the Order
of Grand Sharks, so he sent word to the officers to call a special
meeting. And this is the plan he gave them:
" If we can get that obligation changed so that the farmers must
pay us all in wheat, instead of part wheat and part corn, we can
speculate and work the market to our hearts' content. You see,
they don't raise enough wheat to pay the debt. So, when pay-time
comes, they will deliver us the wheat until they can't spare any
more; then they will have to buy wheat back from us to pay us
with. We'll set the price on the wheat by holding it until their
bid suits us. We will not have to take corn, any more than we will
f^have to take meat, potatoes, labor, or any other product of labor.
They must have the wheat back to pay us with, or we will foreclose.
As I said, we will set the exchange price on the wheat, by means
of our comer. Of course a bushel of wheat is but a bushel of wheat,
the same as a dollar is but a dollar; but the value to us who con-
trol the wheat is its exchange value for other things. We can ask
four bushels of corn for one bushel of wheat; we can take two days'
labor for one bushel of wheat, instead of giving two bushels of
wheat for one day's labor. Having full control of the surplus of
wheat, and at the same time requiring them to pay us in wheat, we
are masters of the situation. Isn't the advantage clear? Aren't
the profits larger? And suppose that some of us who are getting
the wheat desire to build a palace in New York, with a bath-room
costing thirty thousand bushels of wheat, don't you see that labor
and lumber and everything produced by labor — except the wheat
we have cornered — being worth less than half as much wheat as
before, we get our house, and in fact everything, at less than half
price. We have not only doubled the interest due us annually, but
the exchange value of the principal is doubled in whatever use we
put it to. And if they fail to pay, and we desire to bid their prop-
erty in, we will get twice as much of it for the debt. The results
are entirely in our interests as lenders. Of course the others must
lose what we make above the legitimate contract profit, but that is
their business."
360 THE GLOBE,
When he had finished, the members were of one mind as to the
desirability of the scheme. One of them suggested that the farm-
ers might not be foolish enough to change the contract. But the
man with the new scheme had had experience in securing franchises,
and said he could fix that with the farmers' agents, if he got to work
at once before too much talking had been done. He was given a
check-book and told to hustle.
Chicago, III. Allen Henry Smith.
NATURE'S IMPRESSIONS.
Faintly and all too vaguely doth the heart,
The soul, and every passive sense retain
Nature's impressions; from her scenes we part.
Touched and exalted; yet too soon again.
With staff and scrip, we tread our wonted track,
Absorbed but by the weight upon our back.
That sudden thrill! The fire! The surging blood I
The ecstasy, overwhelming like a flood.
With which we contemplate some witching scene.
Ah! would that memory of that spell divine,
Its fervid warmth, its genial, generous glow,
Would in our fancy bide forever green.
Intoxicating with its wholesome wine.
Thus appetite on what 'twould feed, would grow.
New York.. J. W. Schwartz.
"BLUFF KING HAL"
The Prince of Wales, at the recent fancy-dress Jubilee ball, given
at London by the Duchess of Devonshire (she who was the widowed
Duchess of Manchester and who married another duke on his ac-
cession, when he was best known as the Marquis of Hartington),
assumed the dress and character of Henry the Eighth; from which
act it may be inferred that this monarch, who, to quote Artemus
Ward, got wives by simply " axin' " for them, and who, as sensual
''BLUFF KINO HAL.'' 351
as Jezebel or Messalina, poses in the ecclesiastical courts of Eng-
land as the founder of its Established Church, is regarded, not only
as a persona grata by the Court of St. James, but as a holy person
by the virtuous Protestant Queen Victoria. That the Prince of
Wales, who, as London society goes, must be regarded as a dis-
tinguished, reputable gentleman, should thus consent to pose for
only a few hours as, and impersonate, a disreputable king like
Henry the Eighth, constitutes a lamentable incident. And a list
of the impersonations by the other guests of her grace the Duchess
of Devonshire, as is published, shows that the impersonation by
the Prince contributed the only bad character on the floor in the
brilliant assemblage; for no one had the courage to appear, for
instance, in the dress of those other heads of the English Church —
Charles the Second and George the Fourth, who in the historical
race for a disreputable character among monarchs make a fair sec-
ond and third to Henry the Eighth.
This choice of character, made by so prominent a social actor
as the Prince of Wales, may sei-ve, however, to resurrect English
attention toward Henry the Eighth, and to make him the especial
object-lesson that he became during Elizabeth's reign.
It was a curious decree of heaven that raised the daughter of the
murdered Anne Boleyn to become second successor to Henry. In
that retributive connection it may be recalled that the present Duke
of Fife, whose children are presumptive — if distant — heirs to the
British crown through his marriage with the daughter of the Prince
of Wales, is himself a lineal descendant of that hapless actress,
Dora Jordan, by another dissolute English king, William the
Fourth.
Henry the Eighth would have found his memory practically per-
ished except for his treachery to the Pope and his acceptance of the
tenets of Martin Luther, toward whom a "fellow feeling" with
the latter's ecclesiastical incest with a nun made him " wondrous
kind."
Seldom has a notable man had so appropriate a nickname as
Henry had in " Bluff King Hal." For in the American sense of the
word, Henry the Eighth was a " bluffer " all his life. His marriage
with his brothers widow, Catharine, was a bluff; his league, three
years after his succession, with the King of Spain was but a bluff
against France; his French victory in the following year at Guine-
gaste, in the battle known as the Field of the Spurs, was, say the
352 THE GLOBE.
chroniclers, won by a bluff; and the same may be urged of his field
of Flodden, in battle with his brother-in-law, the King of the Scots.
Henry's hypocritical favoritism of Wolsey and subsequent ungrate-
ful quarrel with him were additional instances of bluff; as were
his highwayman methods in the pillage of six hundred and forty-
five monasteries, all in the burlesque name of reforming religion.
The iconoclastic convocations of York and Canterbury, which
prcnounced his marriage to Catharine of Aragon null and void,
were victims to Henry's bluff. But he failed in his blasphemous
attempt at bluffing the Holy Pontiff into awarding him the sanction
of the Church, through divorce, toward wedding the doll-face of
Anne Boleyn. His mock-trial of Queen Catharine (so well por-
trayed by Shakespeare, who had instant access to its recent his-
tory) was but a piece of consummate bluff. He tried the latter
upon Charles Fifth at the field of the Cloth of Gold. His Latin
book against Lutheranism was a bluff, which his sexual passions
eventually took back, and in return Martin Luther bluffed back
with a reply that savored of what the sailors express by the phrase,
" All in my eye, Betty Martin, oh."
Henry was, too, the only English king who succeeded in bluffing
his Parliament, as witness the statutes he obtained from them —
one settling the succession on Anne Boleyn's daughter, and denying
it (but in effect unsuccessfully) to his issue by his only one real
wife, Catharine; and another divorcing his fourth wife, Anne —
she of Cleves. He again bluffed his subjects by marrying a second
Catharine (Parr) after sending the head of the Cleves wife to bear
gory company with that of Anne Boleyn. He then alternately
bluffed his newly organized Protestants and his betrayed Catholics
by persecuting each in turn. He bluffed history by taking to his
newly-invented religious faith, through a monstrous usurpation, of
his title of " Defender," which the Pope had conferred upon him
for his review of Luther, and as unsuspiciously at the time as Christ
conferred the title of Apostle upon Judas Iscariot.
This title of Defender still appertains to Victoria as head of the
Established Church, whose alleged apostolic succession only began
with wretched King Henry the Eighth. His second war with France,
in 1544, and his boasted trip to Calais, were only other big bluffs
without winning stakes. He bluffed the principality of Wales and
the " Men of Harlech " into a union with England. He failed in
his diabolically ungrateful prosecution of his once bosom friend
' ' BL UFF KINO HAL.'' 353
and valiant general, the Duke of Norfolk, because Henry died on
the day preceding that fixed for bringing the head of the Duke to
the block on Tower Hill. In this prosecution he had bluffed Ma^a
Carta; for Henry had proceeded against the Duke by attainder,
without trial or evidence. The Defender of Protestantism, how-
ever, could not bluff Death, although he endeavored to — if we are
to credit the narrative of Sir Anthony Denny, who told him of his
fate, and brought to his bedside the capricious and cowardly Cran-
mer. His whole career was a game of bluff inspired by his love of
sway; and he so bluffed liberty and constitutional equipoise through-
out his reign that these were practically banished from it; indeed,
their very forms were rendered purely subservient to his passions.
Appropriate, therefore, is his sobriquet of " Bluff King Hal," so
colloquially used by his subjects without their appreciating its fit-
ness, and by novelists, historians, and poets. Yet this human mon-
ster it is, whom at this time of writing, the Anglican and the Ameri-
can Episcopal bishops, in an international ecclesiastical convention
at London, are honoring as the founder of their Church.
Moreover, after decrying through several ages the folly of bav-
in a head of the Church, infallible in its discipline, they are endeav-
oring to make the Archbishop of Canterbury a semi-Pope of the
Established Church and appointing the senior Episcopal Bishop to
perform similar functions of Church headship in the United States.
In contrast to all these statements, how grand and how majestic
must seem — even to liberal and unprejudiced Protestants — ^the an-
cient Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, founded by Christ
on Saint Peter as a rock; and so diverse from one founded by a dis-
solute king upon what may be termed segments of alabaster capable
of being molded at sectarian caprice.
New York. A. Oakey Hall.
354 THE GLOBE.
GLOBE NOTES.
For two weeks previous to the issue of the last Globe Review,
and for several weeks after its issue, a painful illness prevented me
from undertaking any serious work, hence the Lay Sermon and
other articles intended for this September issue, all requiring closer
study and application than I have been able to give, do not yet
appear, but they are all blocked out in my mind, and with improved
health I hope to write two or three of said articles in time for the
December Globe.
Perhaps it is not necessary to apologize, however, for the milder
tone of my own work in this issue. In truth, I have no doubt that
many readers will be quite willing to overlook some loss of power
if they only find any appreciable increase of charity. Others, I
know, prefer the strength in spite of its sometimes admitted sever-
ity. Here, as always, I do the best that I can, and it always pleases
me when, in public or private notices of the Globe, the work of
other writers is given a preference over my own. I am often amazed
and amused at the fearful epithets applied to me and my work by
a certain order of so-called critics, and, could they know with what
modesty, gentleness, and charity I set about my work, though some-
times inclined to say savage things of utter savages, they would be
as much amazed and amused as I am.
*******
Sick or well, however, I must make some reference here to certain
very unjust and impertinent criticisms of this magazine that have
recently appeared in the Northwest Review, to the effect, for in-
stance, that, having had a Protestant education, ^Ir. Thome can
hardly be expected to have other than biased — that is, erroneous —
views concerning Catholic Church history, and, as his education
has been " fragmentary," he certainly cannot understand a great
and consistent and logical and elaborate soul like the late Cardinal
Newman.
It is of no consequence to me who does this wiseacre and con-
summately stupid work in the Northwest Review. Until recently
I had supposed that the editorial head of that paper possessed some
real appreciation of the acknowledged merits of the Globe Review,
and hence had always felt in the kindest mood toward him and his
GLOBE N0TE8. 355
paper. I do not intend to be unkind now, in fact will not be, but
I want this presumptuous gentleman of the Northwest Review to
awake his narrow-headed and prejudiced senses before he under-
takes to make senseless criticisms of my work in the future.
Regarding the first point, if this wondrous saint and scholar of
the Northwest Review would apply one hundredth part of the labor
and integrity it has taken to make the Globe Review and sustain
it these last eight years, he would learn that for more than a quarter
of a century before I was received into the Catholic Church I had
given up my Presbyterian parish as a minister, and my bread and
butter and home, and a thousand ties dear to me in this world,
because I could not take or hold the Protestant idea regarding
Church History or any other history or religious attitude at all.
He might also find that, even when a Presbyterian minister, I never
held or tolerated the bigoted views generally held by Protestants
regarding any phase of the Catholic Church, past or present. Again,
he might find that while literary editor, for years, of a great daily
paper, I never failed to ridicule the Protestant idea of the " Dark
Ages," so-called, and frequently even then, and long before I be-
came Catholic or even dreamed of being a Catholic, I now and again
pointed out the glories of Catholic scholarship and sainthood that
illuminated those so-called dark ages. He might also find repeated
instances of this sort of expression in the Globe Review before
its editor became a Catholic. He might also find several articles in
this Review written by other parties and welcomed by me, in utter
contradiction of his falsehoods. In view of these facts, which are a
part of the general literary work of this country for the last twenty-
five years, it seems to me as unbecoming and impertinent as it is
unfraternal and ungenerous for this unknown and nameless editor
of a so-called Catholic paper to misrepresent me in this fashion.
I am not defending Protestant ideas. I am simply proving the false-
hood of this Northwest scribbler.
One would suppose that such as he would rather welcome with
joy and gratitude every earnest soul that came into the fold of the
Church and lifted up what seems to many thousands of earnest
Catholics no mean or milk-and-water voice in its defense; and if
this fellow of the Northwest Review does not know my record, I
refer him to all the issues of the Globe Review for the last eight
years, and these will give the lie to his Wrong-headed and conceited
ignorance. I am not arguing with him, but directing him where
to find needed information.
366 THE OLOBE.
Regarding his silly suggestion that a man of my training could
not be expected to comprehend the writings of a man like Newman,
it is too ludicrous for serious treatment, were it not for the fact
that the sayings of this untaught wiseacre of the Northwest Review
may influence other minds and lead them to false conclusions con-
cerning myself.
I read and appreciated Newman many years before I became a
Catholic — in all probability, many years before my Northwest critic
was able to read or understand him — and yet, in truth, Newman's
work was a very simple one — a work that all students of early
Church history know how to appreciate; and there was neither any
supreme intellect or supreme originality necessary to do the work
he did so beautifully. Neither, on the other hand, was his work
at all aggressive; in fact, had little or no bearing upon the great
battles between modern Liberalism, so-called, and modem science,
so-called, as these are against the Catholic Church of our day and
generation.
I do not intend to do over again the work that Newman did so
well, but I have already done in this Review work of quite as much
service; work that he could not have done, and at daggers' points
with all the Protestant, Liberal, infidel, and scientific lies of our
day. The trouble is not that I do not understand Newman, but
that this stultified and immaculate Catholic booby of the Northwest
Review does not, and apparently is determined that he will not,
understand me. For the last seven years I liave promised myself
the pleasure of reviewing Newman's entire work and his place in
English literature, but modern issues are more pressing.
In conclusion, let me tell my Manitoba critic that it is the part
of a mule or a jackass, and not the part of a Catholic Christian
or any decent man, to kick at his friend or his master, instead of
working with him in the eternal harness of truth and charity. Had
I time or were it worth while, I could show more conclusively the
falsehood and injustice of his strictures; but I have not time, and it
is not worth while.
It has been aptly said of some Catholics that they are more ortho-
dox than the Pope, and of others that had they written the Gospels
they would have whitewashed Peter's denials and have utterly
denied his cuss words.
Now this man of the Northwest Review seems to be of the class
that would whitewash all Catholic history, and make it all angelic.
GLOBE NOTES, 357
whereas quite a sprinkling of it is damnable, and, to put into Angli-
can English an oft-repeated Latin sonorousness of the Mass, " As it
was in the beginning (it) is now, and ever shall be world without
end, Amen."
The meanest and most dishonest knaves I have met or heard of
in the last five years have been Catholics, and some of the Popes
and some of the prelates of the Middle Ages were little better; but
the Church is divine spite of its Judases, its Alexanders and its John
Irelands.
I do not take and never have taken Protestant ground regarding
Catholic Church history. I admit no more concerning the excep-
tional corruptions of the Church — that is, of some of its notorious
representatives — than is admitted by all honest Catholic historians,
and just as frankly admitted by His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons
in the latest book from his hands; and let me suggest to this fellow
of the Northwest Review, and to all Catholics like him, that all Prot-
estants are not fools, and that it w^re better, safer, and wiser and
more manly on our part as Catholics to admit our faults than to
whitewash our vices and crimes.
4: H: '¥ ^ ^ ^ 4:
In the Catholic World for August tliere is an article entitled
" Our Boys," by Eev. M. F. Heffernan, which seems to me worthy
the serious attention of all the Catholic priests and all the more
intelligent Catholic laymen and women of our times. The article
itself is of excellent spirit and very well done; but it is for what it
suggests rather than for what it says that I call attention to it in the
Globe.
In general Father Heffernan proposes some sort of quasi-military
and quasi-religious organization to be developed, as far as possible,
in all Catholic churches, that shall gather the boys ranging from
thirteen to eighteen years of age away from the many temptations
that beset them during that period of life, and interest them more
vividly in the churches of their respective localities. He admits
that a great deal more attention is devoted by Catholic churches
to the spiritual welfare of girls ranging along the same ages than is
devoted to the boys. Of this general admission I have nothing to
say (except to express my regret), because I lack experience of the
facts as stated, but I beg to assure all readers of these comments,
whether lay or clerical, that quite the reverse has long been true
in the management of all successful Protestant churches, and that.
358 THE GLOBE,
as a rule, in said churches the boys and young men have long had
more of the pastor's attention than the girls and the young women;
and were there space and time to go into the matter here I could
give many striking examples of what would generally be conceded
as the beneficial results of this latter policy. 1 refrain, however, for
the present, and more willingly because it is clear to me that there
is not the same opportunity to interest the boys and young men
of our Catholic churches that exists in Protestant churches. The
line of demarkation between the priest and his Catholic young men
is more sharply defined than is the case between the Protestant
pastor and the boys and young men of his congregation — but I
must drop this phase of the question and refer to Father Heffernan's
own ideas and plans, gladly admitting that, notwithstanding what
I have said, the proportion of men in attendance upon Catholic
services and duties is vastly larger than in Protestant churches.
Persons at all familiar with the life of our boys in Catholic
schools and colleges will readily admit that the military drill, with
its various incidental training and amusement, is one of the most
attractive features of the Catholic boy's life at college, and it seems
to me that Father Heifernan has hit upon a capital idea in suggest-
ing that this military feature should be used for all it is wortli
in holding the church interest of the tens of thousands of Catholic
boys who are not fortunate enough to procure the advantages of a
college education; for this, if T understand him, is the heart and
soul of his plan — that is, to gather the Catholic and other gamin
from the streets, and perhaps from other still less reputable quarters,
of Sunday afternoons, and at other hours of the week if possible,
and form them into such organizations as I have named — the
avowed object being, of course, to bring them by degrees into a
more frequent observance of their religious duties as Catholics, and
make of them better equipped and more valuable men. I am sorry
that the need exists, but perhaps it does exist.
The task suggested is really as large as the civilization of the
world, and it is difficult not to generalize on the subject, but I have
one or two practical suggestions to make in the line of Father
HefTernan's plan. Of course, it must have occurred to him, as it
will readily occur to all other priests and sensible men, that it would
be difficult to organize or to maintain an organization of the kind
he suggests in other than city parishes, for, in the first place, mili-
tary organizations need numbers to make them attractive, and such
GLOBE NOTES. 359
numbers of Catholic boys will hardly be found in our country
parishes; and, in the next place, in order to the maintenance of a
military organization and the drill of boys in that line there must
be competent teachers of military drill, for without this the boys
themselves, so quick to detect any absurdity or weakness, would
simply laugh at the organization and much prefer to pitch pennies
in the streets or to go on in their own slipshod amusements, what-
ever they might be.
In a word, any military organization of the kind referred to must
be thorough and competent in order to make it more attractive
than the street, and, to secure these points, competent drill-masters
are needed, involving expense and running many risks of competi-
tion and clashing between such teachers and the rule of the priests.
For, while I take it for granted that whatever organization of the
kind referred to would be under the superior control of the priest
in each particular locality, I also take it for granted that the priest
himself could not, would not, and should not be the military drill-
master in question. He is usually an overworked man as it is.
Here again, as in summer and winter schools and many other quasi-
intellectual and quasi-religious and moral enterprises of the Cath-
olic Church, comes in the question of employing and fully acknowl-
edging the power and intelligence of the lay elements involved, and
the absolute certainty that in order fully to develop and use these
elements, priests will everywhere have to loosen a little of the tight
rein of their own authority and judgment, and admit laymen of
equal or superior intelligence to their own, to a full share alike in
the work and honor of such organizations.
That it is coming to this, especially in our country, I have no
doubt, but as I have now more than both hands full, I am not
speaking for myself, and I hardly expect to see this change in my
own lifetime, which at best has only a few more years to run.
I have two other suggestions to make in connection with the
enterprise proposed: First, I would not call the organization after
St. Anthony or any other saint in the calendar. Of course, I indorse
all the veneration paid by Catholics to their saints, and I have
a few saints of my own canonizing, not included in the Catholic
calendar, toward whom I feel a profound veneration, but I do not
believe in mixing things in a way to look ridiculous, and I am
inclined to believe that Catholics are disposed to run this mixing
and veneration of a certain clique of saints to ludicrous extremes.
VOL, VII.— 24.
360 THE GLOBE.
No sane man would think of making Epicurus the patron saint
of one of our modem cold-water, vegetarian and hygienic sanatorium
institutions. In truth, the famous old Epicurus knew a trick worth
two of it, and would well enjoy his pipe and ale and any sort of
luxury were he alive to-day; and it seems to me no more consistent
to make St. Anthony the patron saint of a modern military organi-
zation. No doubt the good God takes good care of the saints. Our
business is to make new ones, and to do this with all the intelli-
gence in our power, always beginning on ourselves.
Had I any voice in the new organization proposed I would call
it "The Good Soldier," army, militia, brigade, or what not, and
leave the old saints for the time being to look after themselves. And,
as the idea is to make, or help to make, good soldiers of the cross
by means of a little plain soldiering in ordinary military tactics,
this term so aptly quoted by Father Heffernan seems to me at oneo
appropriate and inspiring as it is scriptural and Catholic.
It is well enough to familiarize our boys a little more vividly with
the actual fountain-head of all our priesthood and sainthood, and in
choosing a name for such an organization as the one proposed it
seems to me advisable not to burden the gamin with some regalia of
St. Anthony, but to shoot into their souls from the start this idea
that they, of their own choice, are responsible members of a new and
" Good Soldiers " army, and adjuncts of the Lord our Saviour.
My second suggestion comes from the last half-line of Father
Heffernan's article. I would not " keep a tight hold of the boys,"
but learn yourselves how to hold them, guide, control them, and
drive them, in case of need, with a slack hold and a loose rein. This
thought is capable of any amount of enlargement and illustration,
but I have said enough to show my appreciation of the plan pro-
posed and to point out sonie of the difficulties in the way of its
efficient and proper accomplishment.
It is doubtless well known to many readers of the Globe, and
perhaps to Father Heffernan himself, that the plan he suggests has
been in successful operation under Protestant auspices and under
the title of " The Boys' Brigade," both in Scotland and in England,
for years past, and I sincerely hope that the Catholics of this country
will make a splendid success of it in the United States.
J have none of the military spirit in my make-up. I am a Chris-
tian, and practically despise all thoughts of warfare, but there is
no telling what is ahead of us. For one, I am sure that war is not
QLOBE NOTES. 361
far off, and in all probability the Catholic boys of this generation
will have to do a little actual fighting on their own account before
our American millennium is attained.
* * ♦ * « « m
Some good friends of the Globe have recently written me sug-
gesting that this would be a good time for a stinging review of the
Queen's Jubilee, etc., but, unfortunately or otherwise, I have no
inchnation to do anything of the kind.
Many years ago, when I was the foreign editorial writer for a
leading daily newspaper, during the period of Gladstone's first
efforts to secure Home Kule for Ireland, it seemed natural enough
to spice the more serious editorials in favor of his scheme with
all sorts of quasi-facetious ridicule of the royal family of England,
and to point out the various blunders and selfishness of the British
Government in all directions. Further studies of international
problems and of the comparative rectitudes of the different nations
of the world have taught me, however, that such a course was hardly
a just one, and that to pursue such line of comment in a magazine
as serious and as cosmopolitan as the Globe claims to be would
be unbecoming the dignity and veracity of its pages.
I have over and over again admitted and criticised the brutal
selfishness of all branches of the white race in their thirst and
crowding for what we call civilization, and as the English have done
more colonizing in the last one hundred years than all the other
branches of our white race together, they have naturally enough
been obliged to wield a strong and sometimes a brutal hand in Aus-
tralia, India, and Africa; but a careful comparative study of the
moral and human tendencies of all the governments of this earth
during the last one hundred years has convinced me that the British
Government has been during this century, and is to-day, the most
prosperous, the most profound, and the best principled government
on the face of the earth.
In the same line of thought, but applying it to the more impor-
tant international crises that have at times during the last twenty
years threatened the nations with an almost world-wide war, I have
had evidence enough that the now venerable Queen of England has
interposed her firm decision in favor of peace and a more fraternal
policy among the advanced nations of civilization; hence, though
shunning all pageants myself, 1 was glad of the great outpouring of
the heart of England and her colonies to do some sort of jubilating
362 THE GLOBE.
in honor of the Queen, and I do not think that the Irish members
of Pariiament or their representatives in America manifested good
sense or good manners by sulking in their tents and, serpent-like,
hissing at the great panorama of a nation's prosperity in which
the Irish themselves have at times been worthy sharers and bene-
ficiaries.
The Queen and the British Government of the last fifty years are
not responsible either for the ancient blunders of the Irish or for
the harsh cruelties of Cromwell and his English, or for the act of
Union, or for anything especially unjust to the Irish people; on the
contrary, the general tendency of British rule over Ireland during
the last fifty years has been toward a more just and human handling
of the entire Anglo-Irish problem.
In truth, as to matters of general education and an approach
toward justice in all lines, priests of Irish birth who have traveled
in Ireland during the last twenty years, and Irish Protestants of
various denominations, have assured me that Ireland is in far better
case to-day than she has been for centuries; but there are people
who, while they have no ability even to govern themselves, accord-
ing to any principles of justice and humanity, would like neverthe-
less to be appointed general superintendents of the infinite universe.
In a word, the editor of the Globe is quite willing that the Eng-
lish should fling their caps in air, and shout in pride of prosperity,
and garland their streets, and steam around in their war-tubs, and
show ofl' generally, nominally in honor of their Queen. And the
editor of the Globe is just as willing that the Queen should take
all this glory to herself, and pass on to such rewards or punishments
as await her in the world to come, without any ridicule from the
Globe Review.
* ♦ * 4: 4: * *
Something ought to be said here regarding the McBanley admin-
istration. I made no comment on the President and his tariff
tinkers in the March and June issues of the Globe, simply because
they had done nothing to justify such comment, and up to this
writing their action is such as I heartily despise.
Mr. McKinley's various speeches since he became President have
been a little more rhetorical and a little more senseless than they
used to be. I regard his policy and the policy of the present admin-
istration toward the Hawaiian question as alike un-American, un-
Monroe Doctrinish, unjust to Japan, dangerous on general inter-
W mmm
GLOBE NOTES, 363
national grounds, and simply as aiding and abetting the thieves
who stole the islands from their rightful owners and rulers — and all
this in obedience to the trust magnates and gold bugs who pur-
chased the elections of last year.
On the other hand, the President is to be commended, in my
judgment, for pursuing the policy of non-intervention in the Cuban
quarrel, and he seems to be living up to the pledges of his party
in sending commissioners abroad to further an international agree-
ment looking toward a return to bimetallism. All this, however,
may be but a ruse to prevent present indignation, and to save time
till his masters are ready to put their foot down on this scheme.
Of course, they will corner the Klondike as they have cornered
other mines. In faith, I have no confidence either in the ability
or integrity of the present administration, and do not expect it to
accomplish any worthy measure for the general benefit of this
nation.
The case of the Yankee whitewashed Cuban Ruiz was about up
to its intellectual status. Ruiz was a spy, to begin with, and was
in Cuba in the interests of the rebels and their American abettors;
nevertheless, had Consul-General Lee acted with any efficient
promptness in his case, Ruiz would have been liberated before he
had time to lose his shallow head and butt himself to death; but
Lee was making a fool of himself in calling loudly for American
warships when he should have been using what little brains nature
has given him to attend to his own plain duties as consul-general
at Havana, and when he saw that a so-called American citizen had
killed himself by reason of his — Lee's — negligence, instead of re-
penting, and resigning like a man, he took advantage of the doubt
in the case, blamed the Spanish authorities for Ruiz's suicide, and
yelled louder than ever for warships and indemnity. Great is
Consul-General Lee — that is, in dough-face American humbu^g^ery.
Then comes the sympathetic side — ^the widow-and-children-parad-
ing fiasco, and all the newspapers made fine displays. This was all
very well done, and I have no doubt that Spain and all Europe got
fun enough out of the farce to justify Spain in paying the Ruiz
claim.
As for the Dingley Tariff bill, over which the combined intellect
of the legislative and executive departments of the Government
struggled for five months, I despise it as I have despised all the tariff
bills concocted by this nation during the last quarter of a century.
364 THE GLOBE.
and I have no idea that it is a nation-saving pill. The mountain in
labor brought forth a mouse-trap, but only the sickliest of human
mice will seek comfort or food in that delusive affair.
Very much on a par with the case of Ruiz is the case of the
Cisneros girl, as paraded in the American papers, especially in the
New York Journal, which is at once the smartest and most dastardly
newspaper published in the United States.
After carefully examining this case, I am satisfied that Minister
De Lome's statement as published in The Journal, August 26, 1897,
is the true statement — the statement of a well-informed gentleman
and a man of honor, and I am just as clearly satisfied that the
Journal's own statements are garbled, vulgar, and paraded merely
for effect; and I wish to make it so plain here that any fool may
read and understand, that, in my serious opinion, Mrs. J. Davis,
Mrs. J. W. Howe, Mrs. U. S. Grant, Mrs. Mark Hanna, Mrs. Mc-
Kinley, and the entire gang of fifteen thousand American women
who, it is said, have petitioned the Queen of Spain to interfere in
behalf of the Cisneros girl, would be infinitely better and more
becomingly occupied were they on their knees and alert, with eyes
wide open and hearts unsullied, petitioning Almighty God to in-
terfere in behalf of their own sins and shortcomings and the sins
and shortcomings of their own husbands, brothers, sons, and daugh-
ters— especially some of the daughters — and the daughters of other
thousands of mothers no less respectable than themselves, whose
daughters have been ruined and worse than imprisoned by the male
relations of these same fiiteen thousand American women.
Of course, this is a dreadful thing to say of these representative
saintly females of America, but their husbands and brothers and
sons know that I am right, all the same. Of course, all the men
on the New York Journal are saints, on larger or smaller salaries;
never did a wrong in their lives; never were enticed by any young
woman — in fact, never needed any enticing; but all this is not
to the point; the true point is, that if the Cisneros girl lured to her
house a Spanish military commander or any other man in order
to entrap him into the hands of assassins or would-be assassins, she
ought to have been shot on the spot, and any American woman
who does not see the morality of this reasoning ought to be shot
lieside the Cisneros girl, for this world is already too full of un-
principled women, and men who, while dressing and parading like
ladies and gentlemen, are at heart and in common daily practice
r
GLOBE NOTES. 365
merely untaught savages, with less of real truth and honor in their
souls than might have been found in the Indian squaws and braves
who occupied this land before the Christian Spanish and English
taught them how to lie, and steal, and drink whiskey, and shoot
with rifles instead of with arrows^ as of old.
I do not like to speak of the personnel of the administration.
The potatoes are too small even for grinding purposes. It is gen-
erally understood that McKinley is the slave of Senator Hanna, and
that Senator Hanna is the tool of the dominating trusts and gold
bugs. Hanna himself is simply a money-grubbing rhinoceros, Sher-
man a weak old man, who has straddled so many fences that he
must be tired to death of his own wobbling career; but for the sake
of his name, and in memory of his brother the general, I am not
inclined to deal severely with the present Secretary of State, so-
called. Gage is simply a financial moonshiner; never had any real
ability or stability in finance or other matters, never has gauged
anything correctly, and is simply in his place to do the bidding of
his masters. In a word, these three— McKinley, Sherman, and
Gage — are the puppets nominally governing this nation, while Mark
Hanna and Co. are pulling the wires.
In my travels the last nine months I have met various so-called
gold Democrats who did not vote for Mr. Bryan last fall, and every
man of them is inclined to " kick himself " for his recent folly.
I have no doubt that when Grover Cleveland found that six million
American citizens had sealed his condemnation with their ballots
in the last election he gave himself many a self -disgusting dig, and
perhaps even His Grace, the Archbishop of St. Paul, though very
mulish in his conceits, may have had some qualms of conscience
when he found that the persons he denominated as anarchists and
s<.»cialist8 last year constituted nearly half the voting population of
the country. I commend all these gentlemen to the master-strokes
of statesmanship that have already made the present administration
a byword and a hissing in the estimation of the civilized world, and
entreat them to do better next time.
In truth, it seems to me that John Ireland, landgrabber, of St.
Paul; and Colonel W. P. Rand, coal-heaver, of Chicago; and Mark
Hanna, trust broker, of Cleveland; and Bob Ingersoll, the smooth-
tongued infidel, and Bourke Cockran, the oratorical clown, both of
New York; and John Wanamaker, the oily and pious petticoat
peddler, of Philadelphia — all great Republicans, and all honorable
366 THE OLOBE,
men; and all the purchasing or purchasable agents of the present
administration, and some of them noted Catholics, might all be
sent to the devil at once with great benefit to this afflicted land.
* * * * * if i^
I notice an error going the rounds of the Catholic papers, to the
effect that Frank McLaughlin, who recently received the last sacra-
ments and died in Philadelphia, was editor of the Philadelphia
Times, and if this error originated in the Catholic Times-Standard
of Philadelphia, which seems probable, it only shows the lamentable
ignorance of that paper concerning important matters that are
going on right under its own nose.
Twenty-three years ago John and Frank McLaughlin — two print-
ers— and Colonel A. K. McClure, a well-known editor, were the main
factors in a stock company that bought out the old Democratic Age
of Philadelphia and established the Philadelphia Times.
John McLaughlin died many years ago, and after his death his
brother Frank managed to get control of a large share of the stock
and became more pronouncedly than before the sole business man-
ager of the paper, but he never had education or cultivation enough
to edit any one page of the Times in all the twenty-three years of his
business headship. He was, however, always a shrewd and narrow
and selfish financier, and always thought that money and vulgarity
were infinitely superior to brains and culture in this world.
Colonel A. K. McClure, the real founder of the Times, and for the
last forty years one of the astutest politicians and one of the best
informed editors in the United States, has always been the editor
of the Times, and with him, from the first, has been associated, as
second in command of the editorship of the Times, Dr. Alfred C.
Lambdin, one of the few really accomplished gentlemen in control
of the newspapers of the United States.
Under these two there have been various writing and managing
editors of the Times during the years of its existence, but McLaugh-
lin was never editor in any sense. Nevertheless, may the good Lord
have mercy on him, and may his soul — in due time — rest in peace.
After the first article — " In Memoriam " — of this issue was fin-
ished, I learned of the sudden death, in Rome, of the Rev. Dr. But-
ler, of Chicago, whose recent appointment to a bishopric was a source
of gratification to his many friends.
I met Dr. Butler in Chicago on two or three occasions, some five
GLOBE NOTES. 367
years ago, but I fancy that there was, from our first meeting, a
mutual lack of mutual liking, in all probability the result of a lack
of any true mutual understanding; for, through close observation
covering a period of over forty years, I have usually found that many
of our dislikes of particular individuals are really dislikes of qual-
ities conceived of as existing in them, which, on closer acquaintance,
are found not to be in them at all — simply " in thy mind's eye,
Horatio," and I am quite ready to believe that Dr. Butler was more
of a man and a saint that I ever gave him credit for being.
However, I refer to his death here not for purposes of eulogy, but
for the more practical purpose of suggesting to His Grace, the Arch-
bishop of Chicago, that it would be a most graceful and popular
act on his part to confer the Bishopric intended for Dr. Butler upon
his closest and dearest friend, the Rev. Thomas Cashman, for many
years the efficient and successful priest in charge of St. Jarleth's
parish, Chicago.
Here again I have no personal grounds for commending Father
Cashman — ^just the opposite, in fact; nevertheless, Butler and Cash-
man were bosom friends, and the latter has not only been one of the
hard-working and prosperous pioneer priests of the windy city, but
is in fact a man of great executive ability and of more genuine parts
than he is usually credited with.
I hope that Archbishop Feehan will pardon this suggestion, and
I assure Father Cashman that when he is made bishop I will throw
my cap as high as the highest, and pray that he may be granted
humility enough to wear his honors and do his work like a modest
man.
These Globe " Notes " have already grown to undue length, and
I must close abruptly by expressing my sincere thanks to the large
number of subscribers who have remitted so promptly during the
summer months, and I especially thank those whose hearty let-
ters of encouragement and blessing have accompanied their sub-
scriptions.
These letters have moved me to deeper and higher resolves for
the future, and have been as rays of heavenly light amid the pains
and worries of the past three months.
I hope that the delinquents and the growlers will be inspired to
think better and do better for the future until such hearty words
of encouragement come from thousands where scores and hundreds
368 THE GLOBE.
send them now; but perhaps the wider and more charitable appre-
ciation will come when I am no longer alive to welcome it.
Meanwhile, it is my purpose to go on in the same fearless vein
of criticism that has won for this magazine an enviable fame among
thousands of cultured and upright souls — some of them still among
the living, while others, alas! are now numbered with the dead.
« * ♦ « ♦ ♦ 4:
P. S. — While the last pages of these Globe "Notes" were going
to press the newspapers were filling the country with reports of the
shooting of some forty Pennsylvania miners while they were peace-
fully on their way to persuade some of their fellow-workmen to
join in the general strike for higher wages. The Globe holds ab-
solutely that employers have a perfect right to fix the maximum
or minimum of wages they are willing to pay their employees, and
the Globe holds just as absolutely that all employees, of every
description, have the same perfect right to work or not to work
for wages offered them, to use all lawful means to have their wages
increased, when dissatisfied, and to persuade as many as possible
of their fellow- workmen to unite with them in such efforts.
Hence, in view of the constitutional and fundamental laws of this
land, and in view of all the facts relating to this latest Pennsylva-
nia tragedy, the Globe holds that the shooting of those unarmed
and defenseless miners was deliberate, dastardly, and wholesale
murder ; and once more the editor of the Globe Review warns
the plutocratic dictators in this country that unless they speedily
resolve henceforth to deal more justly with their employees, espe-
cially in such crises as the present, their own lives and the lives
of all that are dear to them are not far removed from the ven-
geance of the masses of the people or from the sterner and more
lasting vengeance of Almighty God.
William Henby Thorne.
THK GLOBK,
NO. XXVIII.
DECEMBER, 1897.
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE.
I HAVE never taken any interest in the legislation looking to a
consolidation of Brooklyn and Long Island City with New York
City, simply because I have taken it for granted for more than thirty
years that such consolidation would certainly become a fact in the
near future, and I always reserve my own work for the advocacy
of such changes in human cities and human lives as are less certain
of immediate realization and much harder to attain than has been
the consolidation named.
The aim I have in view in writing this article looks to such gigan-
tic work some time in the far future, and the children born in the
last decade of the nineteenth century may, some of them, live to
see the scheme I shall here })ropose actually accomplished.
On returning to New York after a brief visit to England and a
brief sojourn in London in the year 1872, I could but smile de-
risively at the language of those New Yorkers who even then spoke
of our metropolis as the greatest city in the world, for of course I
knew then, as we all know to-day, that at that time London could
have put New York in one of its overcoat pockets and have car-
ried it along with good, stout British complacency; and to-day we
all know that as to population or extent of territory New York is
hardly half the size of the old English capital; but I am not writ-
ing this article for the comparison of European -with American
cities, nor for the purpose of comparing American cities with one
VOL. VII.— 25.
370 THE GLOBE.
another. Any latest book of statistics will perform this work for
the reader.
In one sense New York is the only city in the United States;
that is, it is the only American city that makes any approach to
those features of cosmopolitan life which we usually expect to find
in any place worthy the name of a city.
Jerusalem was not a large place in Solomon's day or in the days
our Saviour walked its streets, but all nations of the earth traded
about her gates and she was then far more cosmopolitan than is
Philadelphia or Boston or Chicago in our day. In truth, these lat-
ter towns are even now but larger or smaller aggregations of almost
strictly local colorings of human life, and to one who has lived and
wrought in all of them, as I have done, it would be an interesting
work to point out these local colorings, to show whence and why
they came; but that line of thought would take me as far from my
present purpose as a study of the comparative size of our cities
would involve, and I have a newer and a more practical scheme in
mind.
Spite of all rivals, nothing but pig-headed Parkhurst, Roosevelt,
and Raines Bill, ignorant and countrified tyranny, or something of
this sort, can possibly prevent New York from continuing to be
what she long has been — the one leading cosmopolitan and match-
less city of our Western Hemisphere.
If the Almighty had searched the world for a supreme site for a
new city of world-wide supremacy He could not have found a better
site than what, in old parlance, was known as Manhattan Island.
Every intelligent man knows that, as commerce is the financial
back-bone of a nation or a city — a free and untrammeled manu-
facturing being presupposed — so a safe and commodious harbor^
easy of approach and near to the sea, is one of the main conditions
of a commercial city; and I know of no harbor in the world that
surpasses the beautiful and exhaustless greatness of the harbor of
New York.
Again, an ideal city, especially in these days of the exactions of
scientific hygiene, must be healthy, easy and capable of perfect
drainage, its air must be salubrious and invigorating; and in all
these respects New York is far superior to any other city in the
United States.
Chicago is flat and bleak and windy and dusty and smoky. Phila-
delphia is dead and enervating and dull and stupid of atmosphere.
Boston is as raw as it is cramped and crooked.
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 371
So I might go over the prevailing characteristics of all the lead-
ing cities in the Union and still find that in all the natural condi-
tions that go to make the site of a city desirable New York excels
them all.
I am well aware that great cities have flourished in the Old
World in old times, and that cities are flourishing in the Old World
and in our own country to-day that very poorly meet the demands
named; but I am speaking of an ideal site for an ideal city of the
future, such as New York is bound to be, unless Senator Eaines
and other boobies like him build walls of ignorant and tyrannous
bondage around it, or unless the trumpet of the last judgment
should sound before Piatt and Croker and their satellites of both
wigwams have become firmly seated in their saddles.
Again, an ideal cosmopolitan city of the future must have origin-
ated with the right sort of human souls and must have a majority
control of such through all its history; and in this particular New
York is the most favored of all the cities in America.
Our early Dutch settlers came of a long-lived and level-headed
race of successful traders, and when these, in the days of Billy Penn
and afterwards, were supplemented by English, Scot-Irish, and
later by Irish, and later still down to our day by Jews, Swedes,
modern Germans, Italians, Eussians, and Poles, it will be noticed
that all are from the races and types that have made human history
a marvel of matchless commercial splendor during the last one
thousand years.
Philadelphia is a comfortable beehive of complacent Quakerism
to this day, touched here and there by all the elements that have
made New York Philadelphia's more than successful rival, but the
Quaker City is Quaker still in everything except old-fashioned
Quaker virtue. This the new Quakers have left with their thees
and thous and their plain clothes to their ancestors, and now Phila-
delphia piety — like the stuff called reformed piety in New York
and Boston — is wholly engaged in looking after the virtue of other
people while playing the devil with its own.
Chicago is little better than a big tepee. Ninety per cent, of its
women are more like squaws than ladies, and seventy-five per cent,
of its men have become so westernized that they are not only in-
sufferably vulgar, but they gloat over it as a virtue, and think that
every man is, or ought to be, a human jackal, if he is not.
Boston is not much better to-day than it was two hundred years
372 THE GLOBE,
ago when its Puritan mad dogs barked out of the city every virtuous
and broad-minded soul in it and determined to have a kingdom
of God all in a little selfish, blue-law hell of their own — lots of
rum and the fumes of witch -fires included.
I am not saying that N'ew York is more virtuous to-day than any
one of its neighbor cities, but its business sidewalks are wider than
the business streets of Boston, its air and its buildings are heavenly
and palatial compared with those of Chicago and Philadelphia, and
spite of all its political rings and corruptions, so universal that no
hotel, church, or common peddler on the streets can escape having to
pay especial tribute to its venal but polite and manly police, New
York is still clearer-headed, broader-minded, and quite as pure-
hearted and handed as any one of its would-be rivals, and is as sure
to out-distance all of them in the future as it is certain that the devil
has all of our cities in charge.
As to climatic and atmospheric conditions New York is an ideal
place of existence. If you have comfortable quarters to live in,
there is no healthier summer resort in the world, and in winter the
temperature is seldom too cold for very comfortable living. The
city really reclines on the bosom of the ocean and is folded in its
arms, hence the summer air is cooler and the winter air milder than
in inland cities of corresponding latitude. Every two or three
weeks, it is true, the city is liable to be covered with a dense fog,
which renders navigation in its rivers somewhat dangerous, but
this condition of things is characteristic of all sea-port towns, and
of all the atmospheres that surround this earth there is none that
proves as good a tonic as the salt air of the sea. On an average the
air is purer, more invigorating, the skies clearer, bluer, and more
beautiful than in any other city I have ever known, and the per-
fect days of New York — which, by the way, are numerous — when
the stars can almost be seen in the clear, lucid blue of mid-day,
are types of beauty and joyousness but little understood by the mill-
ions of people who enjoy these things without scarcely knowing
what they enjoy.
But I did not set out to write a eulogy of New York as the city
exists to-day; far from this; in fact the sole purpose of this article
is to point out its almost barbaric rudeness, crudeness, and unde-
veloped natural resources and possibilities, and to point out very
definitely certain needed and demanded and very broad and radical
improvements.
GREATER NEW TORE AKD MORE. 373
Nature has done wonders for New York. It is verily a city built
upon a rock and circled with skies in which angels might long to
dwell, and man has done not a little to make it a great and com-
fortable center of human habitation. Still, with few exceptions,
where railroads have made and are making solid improvements,
its superb water frontage is hemmed in by wharfage that rats might
shrink from, were they at all particular; the streets threaded by
its elevated railways are made harder looking and more repulsive
than prisons by the gaunt and hideous iron skeleton structures
known as the elevated roads; in whole countless miles of streets
and park roadways there is scarcely a decent public toilet resort,
and on the Jersey side, within breathing and almost touching dis-
tance of its millions of inhabitants, there are many thousands of
acres of unimproved, malarious, filthy, unhealthy, and disgraceful
swamp-lands, known as the Jersey City flats or meadows, and these
are some of the features that I have in mind as in immediate need
of such intelligent improvements as cannot be expected to be
originated or executed under the direction of such shallow-headed
and selfish-hearted public citizens as Tom Piatt, the navy man
Roosevelt, Whitelaw Eeid, or Croker and the other relicts of the
once famous Bill Tweed.
Still, the things I am about to suggest will have to be done sooner
or later, and the sooner we develop men sufficiently broad-headed
and public-spirited to engage in them and carry them out, the
sooner will New York rise to the proud position she deserves among
the great cities of the world.
In order to make my suggestions clear to the thousands of read-
ers of this magazine who do not reside in New York and may
never see the city in fact, it will be necessary to give a brief descrip-
tion of New York City and its immediate environments to-day,
and, as I do not use illustrations in the Globe, I will resort to a
very simple plan of description.
If the reader will imagine his or her left fore-arm severed from
the elbow, or bare it, as it is, from the elbow, and hold it with the
back of the hand upward and the fingers and thumb easily and
slightly extended, or spread, and then imagine that this left fore-
arm from the elbow joint to the tip of the middle finger is just
about sixteen miles long, and anywhere from a mile and a half to
three miles wide, the wider portion being the hand and northern-
most portion, with a great river flowing on each side of it, he will
374 THE GLOBE.
have a pretty good general picture of the site of New York City
before the recent consolidation took place.
To the east of his sixteen-mile left fore-arm, thus pointing north-
ward, is the body of water known as the East Kiver, averaging
about a mile in width and extending along the east front of the
city lor about eight miles, where it curves still eastward, bounding
the north shore of Long Island on the south and washing the shores
of Connecticut on their southern borders, and is known as Long
Island Sound.
Coming to the East Kiver from this latter, that is, its northeast
portion — that is, really from the Atlantic Ocean — we find that what
is called the East Kiver on the lower eastern half of the water-front
of N'ew York City is really only a diverted and narrowed sweep of
Long Island Sound. In a word, the Atlantic, with its eternal swirl
westward — like all the great forces of God in these later centuries —
came, in its course, long ago, upon those masses of rock in the up-
per East Kiver, known as Hell Gate, and when it had, after ages
of beating and battling, worn portions of the Hell Gate rocks away,
it still found the solider masses of rock which even now serve as
the foundation of the eastern portion of New York City, about
opposite the eastern side of Central Park, or say, midway between
the present northernmost and southernmost limits of the great
city; and strong as the old ocean was and remains, until there shall
be " no more sea," it was not strong enough to force its way through
these rock beds of the great city of the future, and after striving
for heaven only knows how many ages, it quietly contented itself
by boring through the softer surfaces that stretched southward and
became what we call the East Kiver, the southwesternmost flow of
Long Island Sound, where the Sound, under the milder name and
motion of a river, again finds the sea at the southern limits or elbow-
joint end of our city, thus helping to form one of the safest, deepest,
and most commodious harbors of the world.
Still following this direction eastward across the East River,
now spanned by one clumsy and yet imposing bridge — called the
Brooklyn Bridge — we come on the east side of the East Kiver to
the southwest portion of Long Island, which along all its shores
is washed by the mighty ocean and which, in ages to come, may
be another and a mightier armed portion of New York than is
to-day the original rock structure of Manhattan Island.
Upon this southwest portion of Long Island and across the East
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 375
River from New York, as all the world knows, are the cities of
Brooklyn and Long Island City — now a portion of, and united
with, New York City, under the general title of Greater New York.
The two cities of Brooklyn and Long Island City occupied more
territory and probably contained together more actual residents
than the city of New York proper, but as a genuine commercial
and historic fact they were always a part of New York, always nat-
urally belonged to and were sustained by the quenchless genius of
its industry, and were a part of its natural advantages. Nothing
but a strip of water a mile wide, and a few petty personal ambitions,
divided them, and at last they are one, as they long ago ought to
have been one.
As I have intimated, the capabilities of growth or spreading are
almost limitless on the Brooklyn or Long Island or eastern side
of what is now Greater New York, and in this direction vast tides
of energy and improvement will be exerted and executed during
the next one hundred years. For Long Island is sea-girt on all
her shores — a land of richest hills and valleys, fit for homes of
the gods — and all the present commerce of the wide world might
find a resting-place along her borders.
Now let us turn for a moment to the western border of our six-
teen-mile fore-arm of a city. All the world knows that New York
is bounded on the west by what is called the North or the Hudson
Eiver. To name this magnificent river is to fall into ecstasies
of admiration over one of the most majestic, one of the noblest,
one of the most inexpressibly beautiful rivers of all the world. But
I am not writing this article for aesthetic purposes or to please the
human appreciation of the beautiful, hence I shall pocket my ad-
miration for the glories of the Hudson River, and think of it only
as a body of water something over a mile wide, sweeping from the
great mountains by a thousand rivulets, until it becomes the great
river which bounds New York City on the west and separates it
to-day from what, except by reason of a mere insignificant condi-
tion known as a State boundary line, might be New York's still
greater growth westward until it has turned the stinking and filthy
and disgraceful marshes of the Jersey City swamp-lands into a
drained and artificial riverized western portion of what must yet
be the most magnificent and matchless and most powerful city
of the world.
To all travellers and to most public-school students of geography
376 THE GLOBE.
it is known that the western banks of the Hudson, opposite New
York, are occupied by a more or less straggling and swamp-girted
place called Jersey City, and that a little to the north of Jersey
City — still opposite New York and separated only by the strip of
water called the Hudson River — is Hoboken, and that north of Ho-
boken — still opposite New York — are the Jersey Palisades, reach-
ing on and up to the Highlands, the far hills, and the mighty
mountains.
Now, the first and far-reaching practical suggestion of this ar-
ticle is that, by such special acts of legislation on the part of the
legislatures of Albany and Trenton as may be necessary, all the
lands now occupied by Jersey City and Hoboken and all the swamp-
lands west of these towns and clear to the borders of Newark and
Passaic, and for sixteen miles north, shall be ceded to the State
of New York, and especially to the city of Greater New York, for
such consideration and on such conditions as the respective govern-
ments of New York and New Jersey shall amicably agree upon.
My reasons for making this suggestion are as follows: First, that
Jersey City and its adjacent country are really as much a part of
and a product of the genius and prosperity of New York City as
were Brookljm and Long Island City, and that the same Jersey
City and adjacent lands and sections are to-day very largely sup-
ported by the life and labor and energy and genius of New York
City. Second, spite of its many and admitted natural advantages
— to-day hardly dreamed of — ^New Jersey is not an aggressive State
in the lines of commerce or of general civilization, and if the State
of New Jersey still continues in control of the swamp-lands named
and the strip known as Jersey City and Jersey City Heights, and
the Hoboken hills, those swamp-lands will probably remain a ma-
laria-spreading swamp of human gangrene until the Judgment day
— that is, unless New Jersey can persuade the railroads crossing said
swamps to improve them on some grand and general plan — which
must be resorted to in order to success — and then pay her — this
same Jersey sand-heap and gold-bug State — for the privilege of
improving her so-called Jersey lands — that is, her insufferable and
neglected pest and plague-breeding and at present worse than use-
less swamp-lands. Third, I take it here for granted, and will try
to make it plain, that the Jersey side of the Hudson is not only
a part of New York and rightfully belongs to her, but that once
owned by New York those beastly swamps would disappear inside
r
OREATEE NEW YORK AND MORE. 377
of fifty years, and that New York really needs, for a more har-
monious and equitable and logical development of her own bordera
and interests, the Jersey City side of the Hudson Kiver, just as
much as she needed the Brooklyn side of the East Kiver.
I am not a rabid New Yorker. Essentially speaking I am not a
New Yorker at all. It is of no consequence to me which city in
the world is the greatest. I am only here over night, till the longer
morning dawns. It is of no moment to me who grows rich or
who grows poor. I care neither for this city nor that political party
or boss or corporation, and I ask no favors of these; but I care for
the health of my fellow-men. I hate to see loafers and boobies
feeding on the industry of genius. I hate to see great opportunities
for needed improvement thwarted and neglected by the mere red-
tape of State line divisions, and above all by innate Jersey stupid-
ity. Speaking more directly, I would, by careful dredging and dig-
ging, deepen the present waterways that drain these swamps and
dump the land so secured over the swamps in order to elevate the
present level. Then I would cut new and deep waterways east and
west and north and south at regular distances, equal to the or-
dinary blocks or squares in nearly all our cities, and would use
these artificial waterways for canal streets, conveyance to be made
by boats, barges, steam craft, etc.; or I would culvert them with
immense culverts, and cover them with earth and stone as ordinary
streets are covered; and I would use the balance of the earth so
won to aid in elevating the general level of the swamp lands.
Then I would grade Jersey City to a proper level, and so gain more
earth for the levelling-up process of the swamp lands. The rest
is plain sailing. Piles may be driven till good foundations for
buildings are reached; any amount of beautifying may be done
to such portion or portions of these swamps, as the Greater New
York and more may deem it best to devote to a beautiful Jersey
City swamp park, and so one of the most disgusting sections of
country adjacent to any American city would be reclaimed, made
of untold value, and by change of atmospheric conditions rendered
conducive to the improved health of millions of human beings..
And I believe absolutely in the old doctrine of " the tools to him
who can use them."
And now for suggestions of improvement when this Greater New
York and more is a legal and an actual fact accomplished.
Of course there wiU be a thousand objections raised against this
378 THE GLOBE.
first suggestion, in fact against every suggestion I shall make in
this article, for the simple reason that you cannot get small-headed
and selfish men and mere money-grabbing fools to see the advan-
tages of great and costly schemes of improvement unless there are
millions of profit for themselves, nor can you expect such pygmies
to have courage sufficient to overcome the many obstacles in the
way of such improvements.
I simply see the need, the vast and crying need of the improve-
ments I here suggest — see the vast advantages that such improve-
ments would be alike to New York City, to all the cities of New
Jersey, and incidentally to the entire nation.
I see also that New Jersey will not make these improvements,
that she will let squatter huts of vermin fill her swamps first; that
New York would and could readily organize capital enough to make
them, and would make them; but just as clearly that since human
nature is human nature and State lines prevail. New York is not
and will not be fool enough to spend millions of capital in order
that its earnings and profits might go ninety per cent, into the
greedy and imbecile pockets of New Jersey legislators and New
Jersey laziness.
Suppose, however, that a slice of New Jersey, sixteen miles long
from north to south, and about eight miles wide from east to west,
and bordering on the Hudson Kiver opposite New York City, was
ceded to New York City and henceforth a portion of it, and sup-
pose that Jersey City were properly graded and paved, the present
natural waterways of the Jersey City swamps dredged and deep-
ened, and other waterways — canals — sixty feet deep and sixty feet
wide, were cut across those swamps at intervals to be decided on
by competent engineers, and that the earth thus dug from deep-
ening the natural waterways and from the cuts of the new water-
ways were piled on the remaining lands thus drained, and the new
waterways thus cut either left open or properly bridged and cul-
verted for streets or for canals and commerce, and a gondola park-
like life of pleasure where filth now reigns, and suppose that the
entire Jersey City swamp-lands thus redeemed and reclaimed were
turned into a new and beautiful city and made a part of our present
Greater New York, what further suggestions of improvement have
I to make?
Dear friends, the suggestions for improvements have but just
begun; but to make those that are to follow more pertinent and
r
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 379
reasonable we will now return to New York City proper — that is,
to this sixteen miles long and two miles wide fore-arm of a city — to
old New Amsterdam, long ago become New York, and now Greater
New York, and by and by to become Greater New York and more.
I have already noticed that in the main New York City is built
upon a rock, convex to the skies and river and ocean-bounded; such
rock that for untold ages the westward sweep of the Atlantic Ocean
has been unable to penetrate it or to crumble it; and in this connec-
tion I call attention to the asinine stupidity of those visionary luna-
tics that now run our New York City papers and our New York City
improvement boards, inasmuch as they are every now and again
talking of rapid transit for New York by underground railroad
facilities, run north and south under the present city and its north-
ern suburbs.
In truth, before the roadbeds for such underground railways
could be perfected there would have to be so much rock-blasting
that the present city would be in ashes from the eternal shocks of
such explosions, and I set it down here as a paragraph by itself,
for the future amusement of newspaper and other fools, that -New
York cannot have rapid transit north and south by means of under-
ground railways, and that the sooner she gives up such blasting
schemes the better for her future history.
In a word. New York must hold her head high into the clear blue
skies the Eternal has wrought into beauty above her, and make
her plans for rapid transit higher in the air.
Here, too, is the place to notice the comparative density of the
business population of what we will henceforth call central New
York, as compared, say, with thirty years ago and as it may well
be compared with thirty or fifty or five hundred years to come;
and there seems to me no apter way of doing this than by picturing
the comparative height of the prevailing business buildings of a
generation ago with the present and the future.
New York and Philadelphia were a little slow in following the
example of Chicago in erecting business blocks or buildings of a
height anywhere from ten to twenty-five stories; but New York
has at last caught the fever of the sky-scraper, always had more
need of doing so than either one of the other cities named, and
unless the crack of doom opens at our feet sooner than expected
by anybody but a clique of idiots. New York will go on in this way
just as fast as her mammoth office-buildings continue to be ten-
380 THE OLOBE.
anted, and as I see it, there is no end to this skyrv^ard building ten-
dency in sight. It is a good thing. Such structures, when well
built, are as safe as a two-story house and infinitely more healthy
and comfortable than were the old-fashioned ofiices and stores.
But for our comparison.
From the year 1865 to the year 1895 the average height of busi-
ness buildings and of dwelling-houses in the entire section of New
York City between the Battery — that is, its southern extremity —
and the southern boundary of Central Park, and across between
the Hudson and the East Eivers — that is, over an area about two
miles wide and five miles long — was five stories above the ground.
Into this area, during the last twenty years, there have been
crowded every day, for purposes of business and pleasure, some-
where in the neighborhood of one million of people, one-third of
them residing, however, across the Hudson, somewhere or other
in New Jersey, or across the East River, somewhere or other in
Brooklyn or on Long Island. And as the means of transit across
the city of New York — that is, from east to west, or vice versa —
have always been and are still slow and filthy, a one-horse and a
disgusting affair; and as the rivers are slow to cross, on either side,
and as the means of transit across Jersey City and across Brooklyn
always have been as slow and stupid and complicated as the means
of transit across New York City itself, the natural, inevitable, and
reasonable tendency of all people doing business in New York
City has been and still is to reside in the city as far as possible;
hence the early evolution of the crowded tenement-house system
in New York. It was not a matter of free-will choice, but a matter
of absolute necessity, the conditions being a,8 I have named them.
Hence also the close built, high story arrangement of even New
York dwelling houses when compared with the dwellings of any
other city known to me. Hence also the frantic efforts to provide
rapid transit north and south in New York City proper; hence
again our crowded elevated roads and the one or two lines of cable
roads running north and south through the city; for it has not
only meant a loss of millions of hours and of all self-respect to get
out of town to any home east or west of the city, but it lias always
been and is still an expensive undertaking which people of small
means can ill afford even to this day.
My purpose is to show that under the existing shallow-pated man-
agement of such men as run the political parties and the news-
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 381
papers of New York all these conditions will grow more incon-
venient and more exasperating, and at the same time to point out
a comprehensive and rational remedy.
From the present indications of building processes in New York
I'City it is reasonable and modest to assume that during the thirty
rears, from 1895 to 1925, the average height of buildings over the
jntire area named — that is, from the Battery to Central Park and
rem river to river — T\dll be at least ten stories instead of five stories.
This again means that the average daily population of this sec-
|tion of New York will be, in round numbers, two millions instead
>f one million, and this also means that rapid transit, in some man-
ler undreamed of and unhinted at by any of the New York bosses
|of these days, must and will be provided for the business and other
Iwellers of this great and concentrated heart and brain of the
^Greater New York of the future; and it is to map out a scheme
to provide for this need that I am writing this article.
As I have already intimated, there has been ample excuse and
reason for the crowded and elevated growth of New York City
lorth and south up to this time, and there has been ample excuse
for the frantic efforts that have been made to provide ample transit
lorth and south for this crowded portion of the city. That we
ive wretchedly failed, even in this small matter, up to this time,
le crowded condition of the cable system of Broadway and con-
^Hected roads is in evidence. In fact, this crowding has become
such in this year of grace 1897 that whole miles of cable-cars are
often seen on Broadway, the cars not more than ten feet apart,
and sometimes blocked in solid trains square after square for miles
along this one of the most important of all the business streets of
the world. Besides this, these cable-cars are almost constantly
crowded to suffocation, and beastly jostling of passenger against
passenger. Moreover, the crowding of the cable-cars together as
named interferes constantly with the easy and rightful moving of
all sorts of business vehicles which, by the very nature of the fact
that they are the carriers of and for the business men and the busi-
ness houses occupying Broadway and adjacent streets, ought to have,
and must eventually be granted, the first right of way along this
great thoroughfare.
Here let it be remembered that while this crowding alike of cable-
cars and jostling of all other kinds of wagons, drays, etc., and the
abominable crowding and delay of all passengers that must ride
382 THE GLOBE.
to and from these business centres along Broadway is bad enough
and provoking enough to-day, it will get worse and worse every
day in the future, precisely in the proportion that the tall build-
ings increase in number and hence in tenants and travelers. Nor
will a new cable-road up Fourth Avenue or Eighth Avenue, or
any other avenue, meet the increasing demands of this increasing
north and south traffic which is bound to increase as I have named.
To meet the immediate demand of this traffic north and south
in central New York City, and to provide for the increase of traffic
sure to come and to come at once in the same direction, I insist:
First, that Fourth Avenue should be opened clear to City Hall
Square, and that a perfect system of elevated steam or electric rail-
road should be built above the present and progressing systems
of horse and cable surface lines that thread this thoroughfare.
Second, that, without a year's delay, a perfect system of elevated
railroad — steam or electric — should be built throughout the en-
tire length of Broadway, from the Battery to the Park, there to
branch east and west, rounding the Park and pursuing all the main
avenues and thoroughfares running north and south, both on the
east and west sides of the Park, clear to the northern limits of the
city. I am not arguing for the depletion or the injury of any pres-
ent line of street surface or elevated railroad in the city of New
York, but simply showing how the demands of the present and the
near future must and will be met sooner or later. Third, so far
from making Fifth Avenue a genteel boulevard for aristocratic
carriage-driving to the exclusion even of business wagons, as that
scarecrow Dutchman Pulitzer of the New York World has advo-
cated within the past twelve months, I insist that an electric or
cable surface road must be built the entire length of Fifth Avenue;
and in addition, that a perfect system of elevated railroad must also
be built above this surface road the entire length of Fifth Avenue,
and extending northward to the northern limits of the city. And
if Pulitzer, or any other mere money-grabbing and shallow-headed
clown, should wipe the brazen paint off his face and storm and stamp
at this, I simply tell him that his ideas may be good enough for a
country town but have no place in the broad expansiveness of a
great commercial city such as New York is to-day and is still sure
to be.
If he still blusters and stares, I tell him to get a guide and ride
on top of one of those clumsy busses that now carry passengers on
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 383
Fifth Avenue and get said guide to explain to him how Fifth
Avenue, from Washington Square to Central Park, looked thirty
years ago, compared with to-day.
Thirty years ago a large portion of Fifth Avenue above Thirtieth
Street had vacant lots, squatter shanties, and billy-goats on the rocks
upon both sides of it. Below Thirtieth Street it was one array of
splendid private mansions. To-day, all the aesthetic and more cult-
ured lines of business are seeking stores on Fifth Avenue over the
entire length of it south of Central Park, and as this commercializ-
ing of Fifth Avenue is sure to go on, and to go on rapidly, the ludic-
rousness of scarecrow Pulitzer^s scheme for turning this thorough-
fare into an anti-businesslike carriage-drive boulevard is so palpable
that any fool but a newspaper fool would see it in a moment. In
truth, Pulitzer is but a cowboy or a Buffalo Bill come East and gone
into the sensational newspaper business. He knows how to make an
excellent whoop and yell of a newspaper, but as for having brains
or experience enough to suggest what improvements should be
made in a great city like New York, it is more preposterous than
it would have been to have made a modern detective out of Blind
Tom. In truth, if Pulitzer wants to improve any part of the city
of N'ew York, let him widen, clean up, and keep clean the filthy
street that runs eastward from City Hall Square on the south side
of his own World or Pulitzer Building; if he would fix his gigantic
intellect on this project and induce Whitelaw Eeid of the Tribune,
and Hearst of the Journal to unite their gigantic and acute intel-
lects with him, this newspaper gang together might perhaps ac-
complish some small improvements in the neighborhood of their
own newspaper buildings, and God knows such improvements have
long been needed. But let them all avoid meddling with large
enterprises looking to rapid transit for the millions of IS'ew York,
for while their purses are large enough to pocket all the gains that
are going, their brains are too limited for any large commercial
undertakings.
Having suggested what seem to me to be the needed and in-
evitable improvements in the way of rapid transit north and south
for the great central New York of the future, I now proceed to
map out a complete system of surface and elevated steam or electric
railroads to run east and west from the Long Island terminus to
the proposed Jersey City terminus of the Greater New York of
the future. We must still continue this eternal crowding north
384 THE GLOBE.
and south in central New York — must encourage its spread east
and west, and in order to aid this must provide rapid transit from
and to the east and west terminals named.
In a word, the time has come for New York to spread east and
west beyond the limits that hitherto have bound it, and now a
great and perfect system of rapid transit is demanded.
As previously hinted, I would first of all erect six more bridges
across the East River, connecting central New York with its Brook-
lyn and Long Island attachments; I would then erect seven bridges
across the Hudson, leading to the same streets in New York as
those erected across the East Eiver, but instead of making the
terminals of these bridges on either side of the city to slant down
to the sloping level of these streets, I would continue them on a
level with- their highest elevation in a splendid system of elevated
steam or electric railways, not only across central New York City
but also across the entire additions to this city on the Brookl}Ti
and Jersey City sides, clear to the eastern and western limits of
the Greater New York of the future.
If after due consultation it should be determined that it is ahke
illegal and impossible to cede to New York the straggling and
despicable portions of New Jersey that I have named, then I sug-
gest that, if necessary, national interference may be sought in order
to bring this sandy and sleepy section of our country up to some sort
of co-operative financial action whereby, through uniting with New
York, the filthy Jersey City swamp-lands may be redeemed as I have
suggested, the grading of Jersey City done, and done at once, these
seven splendid bridges built across the Hudson River, and the Jer-
sey City side of New York thus being connected by a splendid sys-
tem of surface and elevated railways with central and eastern New
York, and that so, even against her will if need be, old Quaker
Jersey might have a great city of her own on the western banks
of the Hudson at once worthy of her many and glorious lost op-
portunities and worthy the commercial civilization of our age and
of future ages. In a word, if we cannot make Jersey City and her
swamp-lands a redeemed and a progressive western portion of New
York, let us help poor Jersey to redeem those swamp-lands and
help her to build another New York or Newark of her own that
shall include her present Newark, the swamps, and Jersey City all
in one.
The scheme of rapid transit east and west across Greater New
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 385
York, and of interstate financial co-operation, that I am here map-
ping out, would be a very expensive scheme; but as the vast in-
terests alike of the nation, of New York, and of IsTew Jersey would
all be immensely enhanced in value by such a scheme, I am satis-
fied that if the nation, including the two States named, could only
be gotten out of the hands of the rascally money-lending gold-bugs
of Europe and America; and that, if the silver mines of the country
were opened and free coinage given free sway, and the money of
the people made nearly double per capita what it is to-day — in a
word, a little cheaper and far more plentiful, and thus a general
boom given to the entire trade of the nation — the vast expense of
the scheme suggested could readily be met, and that the invest-
ment would very soon pay a reasonable dividend. In truth, if
Jersey can be made to see that the scheme would pay her 100 per
cent, on $100,000,000 she will jump at the enterprise. At all
events, some such scheme must be undertaken in the near future,
and for their already shrinking and contemptible reputations I
am sorry that the pegging newspaper men and the politicians of
New York have not themselves been the originators of this scheme.
• By the plan proposed I would carrj"" passengers from Newark
to the eastern limits of Brooklyn or any intermediate station for
five cents, and make the run from either the eastern or western
terminal to the opposite terminal in not over fifteen minutes.
I am well aware that many serious objections will be raised to
the vast improvement I have here outlined. For instance, that it
will darken and spoil our streets, etc., and how will I get over the
junctions of the eastern and western elevated railways and the
northern and southern elevated roads, etc., etc. But I have thought
of and thought through all these objections, and will here answer
them as briefly as possible.
I have already suggested that I would carry the elevated roads
across central New York at a height equal to the highest elevation
of the bridges across the Hudson and the East Kivers. If necessary
I would increase this elevation a little in the approaches of these
eastern and western roads toward the centre of central New York.
In a word, would build the eastern and western elevated roads
high enough to clear the elevated roads going north and south, and
so would meet the objection of the possible awkwardness of the
intersections of these eastern and western with the northern and
southern elevated roads.
VOL. vir.— 2G.
386 THE GLOBE.-
The objection that elevated roads as they exist to-day deface the
city, especially that such a network of city railroads as I have
planned would be a general eye-sore all over Greater New York,
I have saved to the last, because this is the point concerning which
I have the most original suggestions to make, and because I always
like to keep the best things for the last, anyway.
In the first place, I have to admit that the present ugly and un-
cared-for system of elevated railroads in the city of New York is
an eye-sore, and that were I proposing to thread Greater New York
with such crude, rude, and neglected structures I should be worthy
the same execration that now ought to be heaped upon the barbaric
and money-grabbing owners and directors of those roads; but T
have no such clumsy and uncared-for scheme in mind.
It must be asserted, however, that when such business enterprise
is manifested as has recently been shown in the erection and beau-
tifying of store-fronts in the neighborhood of Sixth Avenue and
Seventeenth to Twenty-third Streets, in New York, people forget
that an ugly and rusty elevated railroad runs along over their heads,
and the storekeepers are not annoyed by the same. In a word,
this objection is foolish and easily overcome; but I have in mind
general improvements in the erection and care of the entire ele-
vated road system suggested that shall be commensurate with the
admirable improvements in the store frontage of the section al-
ready named. In a word, I will beautify your city with these ele-
vated roads and will not disfigure it at all. How? As follows:
I will insist that by city and State legislation, if need be, the
owners of the present systems of elevated city railroads be com-
pelled to paint their rusty and clumsy structures and to keep them
and all their stations painted in such colors of combined white
and straw and green as shall upon trial seem most restful and
pleasing to the eyes of the vast millions that throng our streets
year after year, and any persons of artistic tastes can decide on
this project. Again, I would by law, if need be, compel the owners
of the present elevated roads to plant flowers and hardy trailing
vines all about the stations along these roads, and to choose such
vines as will be beautiful even in our harsh winter season when
ordinary flowers cease to grow and bloom out of doors; and of
course I would by law impose these conditions upon all new rail-
way corporations applying for franchises in order to carry out the
general system of elevated roads that I have here named. And
GREATER NEW YORK AND MORE. 387
I am not yet by any means through with the improvements and
comfort for travelers that I would still insist upon.
It is clumsy, awkward, inconvenient, and tiresome enough to
climb the bleak and wretched stairways that now lead to the sta-
tions of our elevated railroads, and when the still more elevated
roads running east and west above the present roads shall be an
accomplished fact, it will be practically out of the question to ask
or expect passengers to climb stairways double the height of the
present clumsy affairs.
Hence I would insist at once and by law, if need be, that these
wretched excrescences of stairways be done away with, and that
in the place of them a perfect and ample system of elevator service
be provided by the owners of all these present and prospective
roads, so that people/ old and young, can reach the first stories of
these north and south roads and the second stories of the proposed
east and west roads rapidly and without any of the tiresome in-
conveniences incident to the present rude and clumsy arrangements.
If corner properties at the mutual Junctions of these roads have
to be purchased in order to make this system of elevator service
ample and perfect, so much the better; for then the sidewalks
would be left clear and unencumbered for pedestrians, as they al-
ways ought to be. And still I am not through with the improve-
ments I have in mind in connection with Greater New York and
its new creation of elevated roads and general conveniences for
the public.
It is a perpetual and a crying disgrace to a great city like New
York that, except in City Hall Square and here and there in Cen-
tral Park, it has no public toilets or lavatories for the convenience
of its teeming inhabitants; and it is a still greater disgrace that in
the cases named the provisions made are so vile and so poorly at-
tended to that no decent man or woman cares to visit these places.
To overcome this disgrace and to meet present and future de-
mands, I insist that at one corner of every square mile of the in-
habited portion of New York — present and future — there should
be a public toilet for men and for women, so select and so per-
fectly arranged and cared for under city authority and direction,
that any lady or gentleman would feel the same freedom in visiting
these places that we all now feel when at home or at our hotels.
Again, I am well aware of the enormous expense of the improve-
ments here demanded; but there is no reason why a few million-
388 THE GLOBE.
aires in New York should go on increasing their millions by
exorbitant usury while failing to pay proper taxes for money so
gained; and there is every reason why these same millionaires
should pay many hundred per cent, more than they are paying for
the general improvement of the city whose industry has made them
their millions and enhanced the value of the properties they now
call their own.
In a word, make me dictator of the city of New York for the
next ten years and I will, without any revolution, row, or blood-
shed, execute all the improvements I have named, raise the money
to do so by quiet and legitimate ways, and pay cash for all con-
tracts and all labor employed in executing the scheme.
But I would not consult a single newspaper man in New York,
nor a single politician now on top, as far as my present knowledge
of these men gives me any true understanding of them.
In a word, as New York is rock-based, river and ocean bound,
and convex to the skies, it is at once perfect as to atmospliere and
drainage, and practically incapable of being tunnelled without great
danger to the safety of the present buildings of the city. Hence,
after years of meditating on these things, the complete system of
overhead and surface improvements here indicated.
T do not expect that the improvements here suggested will be
inaugurated or executed immediately. I know too well the limited
and selfish understandings of the individuals now in charge of the
city; but sooner or later some dictator, or the people en masse, will
arise and demand that these improvements must and shall be made.
Won't some of our twentieth century female clubs lend their im-
mediate and screaming aid — then our millennium may be nigh at
hand.
William Henry Thorne.
RELIGIONS AND THE RELIGION.
Thet who first made use of the Latin word religio — meaning
a sacred obligation — or of the Greek word theologia — signifying
God-wisdom, little perceived how the germs of signification in those
words would evolve into systems embracing every portion of the
globe, and, as regards America alone, forty in number. The scope
of religious evolution throughout the ages can be estimated from
r
RELIGIONS AND THE RELIGION. 389
the following encyclopaedic information. The Christian religion in
various forms claims of the inhabitants of the world, 477,000,000;
Confucianism, 256,000,000; Hinduism, 190,000,000; Islamism,
177,000,000; Buddhism, 148,000,000; Judaism, 8,000,000; and
Polytheism, 118,000,000. Here are five distinct systems of religion,
without counting the score of others divisible, in minor keys, from
polytheism or idolatries. Hence a study of the religions of the
world in the past or present necessarily suggests vastness and ab-
sorbing interest.
However, the students of religion or of theology glean in different
fields; and, unfortunately, the latter class neglect more or less to
examine and study all the religions. But inasmuch as everyone,
whether savage or civilized, is naturally a religious animal, the
tracery of religious evolution becomes a fascinating pursuit.
English scholars have ever disagreed as to a standard definition
of the word religion. Oxonian Max Miiller defined it to be "a
mental faculty or disposition which always, independent of sense
and reason, and sometimes despite them, enables man to apprehend
the Infinite under different names and varying disguises." But
an objection to that definition can be made on the ground that it
necessarily implies an intellectual process which excludes the re-
ligion of the savage of " untutored mind," and also the union of
belief in worship which seem to be parallel and inseparable sides
to every religious system whatsoever. Herbert Spencer's definition
of religion seems similarly inadequate. Other philosophers define
religion to be " an emanation of wonder or curiosity as regards the
first cause of all things." Perhaps a recent definition by Doctor
Colange of Philadelphia may come nearer to general acquiescence
— " a system for the worship of a Being who is regarded as superior
to man." Allan Menzies, Professor of Biblical Criticism at the
University of St. Andrews, supplements with this definition: " Re-
ligion is the worship of unseen powers inspired from a sense of
need. But be the definition whatsoever you please to select, we
must not forget that religion is at most a sentiment, and is also
practical, and constitutes universally some system of duties."
Theology is a system of opinions, and is speculative only; and
may be defined as the study of religion. It inquires into the nat-
ure of the Power or Powers to whom all visible things are believed
to be under subjection; while religion is the sentiment which
springs from that inqxiiry.
390 THE OLOBB.
The infidel, in evolving his doubts, is always confronted with
the historic fact that never yet was there a tribe or people that did
not have a religion, however crude. Moses, under the shadow of
Sinai, and Aaron, beneath the glitter of the golden calf, knew that
side by side with their Hebrew religion there existed another re-
ligious system of the Canaanites, who worshiped an unseen Su-
perior whom they named Baal, and similarly as the Hebrews used
the name Jehovah. None have doubted that religion — or a belief
in and worship of gods — is universal at the savage state, although
the needs or incentive thereto may have been low and material.
Religion is an inheritance which has come down to all mankind
from the time when human intelligence first turned toward an
effort to understand the world. The savage practiced either a
major or a minor worship of nature or of ancestors, and finally of
a principal deity. Herbert Spencer contends that "the rudi-
mentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead relatives,"
or, as he phrases it in another place, " Ghost propitiation is the
origin of all religions." But the majority of philosophers regard
a worship of nature as constituting the root of the world's religions.
Hence the naiads and dryads of the mythologists. Polytheism was
undoubtedly the first crude form of religion, and therefore perhaps
came the significance of the Mosaic commandment beginning with
the phrase, " Thou shalt have no other gods."
In its primitive state religion knew as features — what have never
left its subsequent evolutions — sacrifice, prayer, sacred places, and
sacred seasons; and primitive religion taught restraint of individ-
ual excess and a morality which consisted in discipline and subor-
dination to the community. All primitive religions held belief in
some future life. The funeral practices of prehistoric times, when
articles of subsistence accompanied the buried body and anniver-
sary festivals of death periods were held, prove that belief from the
Egyptian time to that of the aboriginals of the continent.
Religions, from being merely tribal, have evolved into a national
character, as in the Assyrian Era, long before the Hebrew tribes
became absorbed into the Jewish nation. We know that there ex-
isted an older state religion in China before came Confucianism,
that was succeeded by native Taoism (the magical system) and im-
ported Buddhism. But both Confucius and Buddha were rather
teachers of virtue than of religious doctrines. And yet fo-day
China has no national religion, but supports three systems existing
RELIGIONS AND THE RELIGION. 391
together, yet championed by the state, and curiously without dis-
cordant rivalry with each other.
Egypt, the land of still more ancient civilization than China,
had a national religion, notwithstanding its several provinces in-
dependent of each; but the foremost scholars of Egyptology con-
fess that no history of Egyptian religion can be written; and that
it was a worship of animals in connection with a sun god is con-
ceded. We can well understand how the Hebrews must have felt
strange under Pharaoh when their religion, founded on a sense
of sin — which no other early religion had thought of — had to be
compared with that of their Egyptian taskmasters. No religious
system was ever more perfect than the Hebraic, and as a great
legal author has said, " upon its sense of sin and pains and penalties
as embodied in its Decalogue has been builded all the criminal
jurisprudence known to civilized nations." David Dudley Field —
who has been deservedly called the American Justinian — declared
that his Penal Code, which he prepared for the State of New York,
did not contain the modern definition of one offence that could
not be traced back to portions of the Ten Commandments as an
emanation from their prohibited sins.
When Greece adopted Zeus as a Supreme Being for worship, it
only made him the centre of a variety of minor deities. Strictly
speaking, Greece never had a national religion, for this was one
belonging to localities. There was in one place the deity of the
hearthstone; in another, of the grove; and again, of the field. It
was the aesthetic artist, rather than the priest, who ministered to
the religions of the Greeks. While Oriental nations were wor-
shiping sun or fire as practical Unitarians, Greeks were engaged
in adoration of all nature. And much the same may be said of the
later Eoman religion of mythology. At the same time, in the far-
away Asia, the religion of the Aryan family was existing and
spreading; and in India growing into priestly hands, as also grew
the religions of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Eome, and as char-
acterized the Hebrew religion from the time of Aaron. It is not
to be forgotten that in all those religions sacrifice and prayer were
important factors. The Greek prayed bareheaded because his
prayer savored of contemplation of his gods; but the Eoman then
covered his head because his prayer was an exercise of thought.
For all the religions there must be provided an altar.
Before approaching the greater religion which dawned with the
THE GLOBE.
Christian century, it is important to consider all these evolutions
of the various prior religions, because, as law is said to be "a
science-spark plucked from the embers of all other sciences," so
the Christian religion necessarily embodied the best elements of
all previous religious systems.
It is never to be forgotten, even by Hebrews, as a historical
matter, that Christianity at its outset was a movement within
Judaism, much as our American democracy was a movement within
the circle of kingly traditions. How few who repeat the Lord's
Prayer in the English Episcopal or our Apostolic Church are
aware that its main language originally appertained to synagogue
worship. Christ was a true reformer in that He used as far as
possible old materials toward constructing a new edifice. In
similar manner, Luther and Henry VIII., in constructing the Prot-
estant system of religion, preserved some of the Eoman worship;
and, as prayer-books show, those two Churches used, and yet use,
the same Apostles' Creed. Solomon was probably the first to fully
realize how much religion depended upon sentiment, and hence his
gorgeous temple. Hence St. Peter's at Eome and St. Paul's and
Westminster Abbey in London, and all the cathedrals. Hence also
the mosques of Mahomet. No doubt, as the poet Bryant sings in
the first line of his approved hymn, " The groves were God's first
temples," but as sentiment took more and more hold upon man's
religious sensibilities, art was invoked to aid nature in religious
systems. Were John Wesley alive he would discover that in many
churches of the religious denomination of which he was founder
the congregations had builded spires and used the majestic organ
for musical aids. These violations of his modest methods were
due to the preponderance of sentiment even among his clergy.
General Booth, the founder of what is called the Salvation Army,
recognized the value of such sentiment when he went back even
to the time of Miriam — that first Hallelujah lassie — and instituted
songs and music for his religious system, even at street comers.
Joe Smith and Brigham Young gave similar recognition in the
details of Mormon worship. Then sentiment depended upon ar-
chitecture, sculpture, painting, and music, all of which largely
influences nearly every one of the religious systems of the world.
Even the sects that reject the aids of the arts in their religious
systems seem driven to appeal to and cultivate the sentiment of
their followers by preserving it in their singing. Burke made the
RELIGIONS AND THE RELIGION. 393
existence of a love in some degree of the sublime and beautiful
among all peoples, primitive or civilized, the foundation of happi-
ness. Moses ab initio cultivated the sentimentality of the " chosen
people/^ He did not disdain the glitter of ceremonies, and all
that he ordained were tinctured with sentiment. They who ac-
cept the full validity and literal descriptions of the Apocalypse,
or the biblical book sometimes known as Eevelations, find therein
that in the world to come, as therein described, sentiment largely
prevails. And they who rely strongly upon ceremonies and ap-
peals to the senses for the promotion of religious feeling refer to
those Eevelations as well as to the Mosaic ceremonies for precedents.
Nor did Christ himself disdain sentiment and ceremony, as witness
the washing of feet and the uses of perfume and frankincense even
down to the time of the sepulchre. The communion service of the
Protestants and the Eucharistic ceremonies of the Holy Church
are certainly tinctured with reverent sentiment, as the descriptions
and language annexed to the pathetic and poetic last supper in the
Evangelists abundantly demonstrate. Sentiment lingers about the
democratic camp meeting or the rude religion of plantation negroes
as well as in the vast and gorgeous Cathedral. And the closer is
studied this alleged relation of sentiment toward religions, the
apter seems the previously quoted definition given by Professor
Menzies. Sentiment, as commonly defined, comprehends thought,
feeling, and opinion. When the poet Wordsworth sang, " My heart
leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky," he recognized the
natural sentiment in even the savage who first beheld that celestial
bow of promise. In whatever direction, therefore, we may turn
the kaleidoscope of religion, the vision never loses sight of the bright
scarlet color of human sentiment in its texture. And sentiment
not only inspires religion, but religion nurtures and deepens senti-
ment. No sect has endeavored to wholly divorce the two. And
it is undeniably the worst blemish upon agnosticism that it is a
foe to sentiment.
The twentieth century, however, will commence with the words
*^ religion and theology" when applied to the Holy Apostolic
Catholic Church, assume a matter of paramount importance be-
cause its religion, in its nineteen hundred years of form, is the only
real religious system; and its theology has for its foundation Christ
and the Apostles, together with such accretions and engrafting as
the needs of advancing civilization and the development of its own
system of religion have logically and ethically ordained.
394 THE GLOBE.
The Church, in regard to all the other religions of the world,
occupies a position similar to that which Aaron's miraculous rod
sustained toward the rods of the Egyptian magicians when the
former swallowed the latter. The Christians of the era of Saints
Peter and Paul, who were referred to by Christ as the " two or
three gathered together in my name," have, under the wise admin-
istration of the Church of Rome, increased in 1900 years to the
astonishing magnitude of 230,886,533 Catholics all over the globe
— according to the report in March, 1892, of the American Statis-
tical Association — the latest computation known. Of these seven
millions and a half were, at the last census, reported to the Federal
Government as belonging to the 77 Catholic dioceses of the United
States, while the same census showed that there were in this
country 42 factional religions masquerading under the title of
Protestant, and each more or less theologically warring upon the
other. All of which serves to recall the words of St. Paul in his
famous discourse at Troas, reported in the twentieth chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles at verses 28-31, " Take heed to yourselves and
all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops
to rule the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own
blood. I know that after my departure ravenous wolves will enter
in among you, not sparing the flock, and will rise up men speaking
perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore
watch!"
When the topic of sentiment, which lexicographers define as
" exquisite sensibility," is applied to the religions of the world,
it belongs arbitrarily to the religion of Peter and his successor
Popes. Where is the sentiment found in the Protestant chapel
when the parson of it, clad in the habiliments that he wears wlicn
addressing a political meeting, is seen and heard making an ex-
temporaneous speech to the Almighty that he calls prayer. But
place his auditor in the Catholic Church, wherein rises the incense
which is typical of the sweet savor ascending to heaven from the
humble heart fired with true penance; wherein confronts him the
expressive, majestic altar, with its reminders of Christ's birth and
suffering, before which is heard the service in words and language
St. Peter employed in Rome, and which, wherever in any clime a
similar altar may be, the same sounds may be uttered; wherein rises
and falls the same music of praise that visited the ears of the early
fathers of the Church. Poetic inspirations on every side inflame
THE IMMACULATE OHILD. 395
the best sensibilities of the heart of that auditor — in the paintings
on the windows and on the walls, typifying holiest and tenderest
scenes, while the sense of the real presence before him clings to
every fibre of that auditor's heart-strings. All the other religions
of the world have attempted in some mode to reach the sensibilities
of their worshipers, but none so fully absorbs the sensibilities of
a disciple as the liturgy and world-wide system of worship in the
Apostolic Catholic Church.
New York. A. Oakey Hall.
THE IMMACULATE CHILD.
In the manger the sweet Babe lay.
Under the wintry sky;
The place was barren and gray.
The inmates were hushed and shy:
A tremulous, infantile cry
Is uttered by lips undefiled;
The fond Mother breathes a fond sigh.
Lo, the immaculate Child!
In a wonderful, sudden way.
Far-off, yet dazzlingly nigh,
A light outshining the day
The innocent shepherds descry:
Affrighted and awed they would fly,
A vision so vivid and wild;
But list! the clear voice from on high!
Lo, the immacidate Child!
With feet that no obstacles stay,
With fire of vehement eye.
With tongues that fervently pray.
The Wise Men their glad journey ply;
A luminous star they espy.
Like a lamp in the mid-air enisled —
It leads where their promised hopes lie;
Lo, the immaculate Child!
ENVOY.
The young Mother's soft lullaby
Is pure and pleading and mild;
The angels in praising Him vie!
Lo, the immaculate Child!
Gardiner, Me. A. T. Schtjman.
396 TEE GLOBE.
MUST THE NEGRO GO?
During the spring of the year 1895, and after more than thirty
years of sincere and old-fashioned abolition sympathy with the
negro race, I made two visits to several of our Southern States, with
results as follows:
First, all my old abolition sympathies, which had been weaken-
ing for over ten years in view of the insufferable self-assertion of
our negroes since the day of their emancipation, vanished like so
many scattered sophistries, for which I had no further use.
Second, on returning to New York I published in the next issue
of the Globe Review my conviction that, spite of emancipation
and our so-called education of the negro — and perhaps aided by
these absurdities — the negroes of this country were more than ever
a shiftless, unteachable, immoral race, incapable of any true civiliza-
tion in our land, and unworthy of American citizenship.
Third, that without mincing matters, or any longer writing or
thinking on the basis of sympathy with the negro, I was convinced
that inside the next thirty years the South would be obliged to
" re-enslave, kill, or export the bulk of its negro population."
Fourth, and in view of this declaration, I was abused by many of
the white editors of Southern newspapers, misrepresented and out-
rageously attacked by certain howling Baptist editors of so-called
religious papers, and, worse than all, slandered by priest Slattery
of Baltimore through the pages of a New York Catholic magazine.
Fifth, and in reply to much of this Christian and Catholic shot-
rubbish I published several papers on the negro problem, one by
Eugene Didier of Baltimore, one by Dr. Gillam, also of Baltimore,
and by various other experienced writers, all going to confirm my
own general estimate of the freed and so-called educated negro,
and his destiny, and still further showing that wherever, in Santo
Domingo or elsewhere, the freed negro or half-breed had come
into freedom and political control, commerce, enterprise, morality,
and every true evolution of civilization had decreased in proportion,
and that though the white race everywhere was bad enough, shift-
less, wasteful, and immoral enough, it had certain inherent quali-
ties that would not allow a lower, a more immoral and a more shift-
less race to dwell in its midst on any equal political or social foot-
ing, and that hence, as I had said, the South would be oUiged,
MUST THE NEGRO QOf 397
sooner or later, to re-enslave, kill, or export a large portion of its
freed negro population.
I did not pretend to say in what way it would have to kill them,
and I frankly admitted that my own sympathies were against any
one of those processes, but that I had done with sympathy for the
negro, white or black, and was simply stating correct history and
lucid prophecy.
Finally I saw, as I have often seen before, that it was useless to
argue with fools, white or black, and so my traducers grew weary
of their own idiotic bowlings and ceased through self-weariness of
their own screaming falsehoods and absurdities.
Now comes a remarkable word from a black man, at least partly
sane and sensible:
Washington, October 13 (1897).— Bishop Henry M. Turner, of
Georgia, perhaps the best known and most highly educated negro
minister in the world, while in Washington gave his views relative
to negro emigration to Africa thus:
" There can be no question that the future of the negro race lies
in Africa, the richest country on the face of the globe and the nat-
ural home of the negro. It has simply come down to extermination
or emigration.
" Why? Simply from the fact that statistics show that the negro
race is dying out. The several causes for this would make inter-
esting reading were I at liberty to name them, but this I cannot
do at this time.
" The negro race is not, in this country, growing healthier,
wealthier, happier, wiser, or anything else which goes to make
life worth living.
" God, in His infinite goodness and wisdom, made Africa for
the negro and the negro for Africa. I believe this just as much
as I do that the sun shines.
" Africa proffers the greatest possibilities on earth for the negro
to emigrate to, that is if he has any idea of being anything this
side of the day of general account giving.
" Even nature is invoking the American negro to return to his
God-given home. The trade winds which once blew from three to
four hundred miles out at sea, from the west coast of Africa, have
mysteriously changed their course, and are now fanning the shores,
moderating the equatorial climate, diminishing the heat and hu-
midity, and driving away the death-dealing fevers and malaria.
" I believe this is simply God preparing Africa for the reception
of her children who are suffering in this country, and who must
return sooner or later.
" The colored race can never be more than hewers of wood and
398 THE GLOBE.
drawers of water in this country. The master race, the white race,
will always reign supreme.
" John Temple Graves, a gentleman for whom I have the high-
est regard, said in one of his speeches that the negro would never
be allowed to control in this country, even where he had a majority.
He also said that the price of his peace was his subordination, and
that never would the negro be recognized as a social or political
equal. This being true, how can the negro ever hope in this coun-
try to attain the full stature of a citizen or a man? "
" Has the African emigration scheme met the approval of a ma-
jority of the negro race?'^ was asked.
"No, indeed; but, on the contrary, a lot of ignorant negroes
have opposed it from its very inception. They prate about the
sickness of Africa and many other things of which they know
nothing.
" The thoughtful and intelligent of the white race indorse the
emigration policy, and it will yet prove a success and of untold
blessing to the negro race. It will be remembered that not more
than one-third of the children of Israel ever came out of Egypt.
The other two-thirds were exterminated. This will be the final
outcome of the American negro if he remains here.''
Having insisted upon freeing and educating the American
negro according to American methods; that is, to cram him with
all sorts of political, religious, and other falsehoods, and to hold
his head high in the air like an old hen proud of her soon-to-be
"broilers," and to protrude his thick lips like a jackass about to
bray, New England has washed her bony and wicked hands of the
negro problem and has dumped the black race like so much manure
on the Southern people, saying to this dumped pile of blackness,
" These are your old masters — now rule them like slaves."
This is New England reform Christianity, and her minions, east
and west, are now heading for the same result in Cuba. But New
England is not God Almighty, and the laws of this universe will
not be changed to suit the ancient whims of Sam Adams or the
more modern eloquence of the late Wendell Phillips and William
Lloyd Garrison. And the negro problem will not be solved accord-
ing to the text-books of Tom Paine or the late Ben Franklin.
Neither men nor nations are bom free or equal, and there are
certain old texts of Scripture bearing on this theme which are as
certain of fulfillment as that heaven's eternal justice, in some way
unseen by infidel idiots, after all, somehow circumvents the red-
tape and the hurrahs of scoundrels and manages the affairs of this
r
MUST THE NEORO 00? 399
world in a way and toward certain ends of righteousness not at
all recognized either in the American Declaration of Independence
or the Constitution of the United States.
I have no inclination to pursue this negro problem further, but
it is again pressing upon us from all sides.
The point only hinted at by Bishop Turner has recently been
boldly and lucidly declared by another negro Bishop, also of
Georgia. In his book, " The Negro and the White Man,'' Rt. Rev.
W. J. Gaines, D.D., feeling perhaps, as I have always claimed, that
the American negro has the same natural right to a residence and
a chance in this country that the white man has, and seeing the in-
surmountable obstacles in the way of deporting the American
negro, asserts, without defending — in truth, while daring to deplore
— the fact that miscegenation and amalgamation — that is, a univer-
sal whitewashing of the negro race and an utter debasement of the
white race — is and long has been a palpable fact in our so-called
civilization; and that, in this process of licentious and unlawful
and lustful intercourse, and not in exportation, the problem is now
being solved and will yet be solved entirely.
Through aU my earlier abolition days I constantly asserted that
the question of race and color was much slighter, as a matter of
fact, than old pro-slavery people would have us believe; and in
recent years, when low-bred white brutes have lynched negroes for
assaulting white women, I have again and again reminded them
and the great newspaper world of our day that through a period
of two hundred years white men — especially in the South — had
been assaulting negro girls, until, as is well known to all observing
people, the number of half-breed negroes pretty nearly equalled the
number of full-blooded negroes, even in slavery days, and not only
in the South, but all over this land; hence, among other logical
conclusions, it would seem that all white men might look with a
little more charity upon the fault of a stray and degraded negro
now and then. But white men in America are not governed by
logic or reason or Justice; they are simply governed, in the main,
by lust, pride, and ambition; hence, again, they could not and
would not see the power of my warning for charity's sake in these
later or earlier years.
In truth, the average white American, especially the newspaper
white American and every white fool led by newspaper "public
sentiment," thinks that he bosses all races and race questions,
400 THE QLOBE.
all nations and national questions, all logic, all reasoning, all ques-
tions of morals, philosophy, and civilization, and that he can not
only do and say what he pleases and as he pleases, but that he can
and will compel the entire human race to submit to and obey his
dictation; and, unfortunately, this is the sort of civilization that
John Ireland and many other half -taught Catholic wild-cats praise
and delight in.
But we will for the moment stick to the negro. Here is a quo-
tation from the book by Bishop Gaines referred to:
" There is a growing indisposition on the part of the young white
men of the South, and as to that, in many other parts of the world,
to marry and assume the responsibilities of families. With access
to so many colored girls they prefer to live in license and shame
rather than take upon themselves the burden of rearing children in
honorable marriage. The white man who does not hesitate to use
violence toward a colored man for illicit intercourse with a white
woman, even with consent, does not scruple to live in adultery with
a colored woman. Nor is this adulterous intercourse confined to
the young unmarried men of the South. It is common for married
men to have their colored concubines and to raise up children by
them in the same towns and communities where their legitimate
families reside. The white man is thus seen to be the potent factor
in the ever-growing evil which threatens the speedy interblending
of races in the South. By reason of superior wealth and advan-
tages he is in a position to carry on this process of miscegenation,
and when it is at length accomplished the sin of it must lie chiefly
at his door.*'
In the Globe articles upon the negro already referred to, and on
the basis of much carefully gathered information, I took the ground
that freedom and our so-called education have increased alike the
ijnmorality of the American negro and his white instructors and
associates.
It is a delicate subject to handle, and I did not care to go into
it then and do not care to go into it now in any detail.
Bishop Gaines states and seems to deplore the fact. If he de-
plores it, however, he is as much an exception to the lustful crav-
ings of his race as he is an exception in the range of their intelli-
gence. Let this suffice to cover that point for the present.
What I am to emphasize here is that as to physiology, virility, and
morality, the fact as stated by Bishop Gaines is alike a fearful
debasement of both races concerned in this sensual and increasing
r
MUST THE NEGRO 00? 401
crime; that a half-breed, thougli usually a little more aristocratic
than a full-blooded negro, is, in fact, a much baser and lower form
of human creature; also that the " white trash," rich or poor, that
has been incident to the half-breed's whitewashing and debasement,
is henceforth a lower and a viler type of white man; finally, that if,
as Bishop Gaines suggests, there is or may be a Providence in this
mode of settling the negro problem, it simply means that eventually
Providence will use this method as the shortest method of anni-
hilating, that is, of slowly killing the American negro, and of damn-
ing and destroying his European whitewasher.
If Yankees and other uninformed and provincial and unobserv-
ing and stupid people turn up their wiseacre noses and assert that I
am unjust in these discriminations, I ask them to go to Philadel-
phia or to Washington, and attend " divine service " at one of the
aristocratic negro churches, and they will not find half a dozen
full-black negroes in any one of these pious assemblies. Ninety-
nine per cent, of them are bastards, or the offspring of bastards,
and they are proud of it, and want to encourage the process that
brought about their own status. I am not blaming them.
Baron Hirsch did not crucify Jesus of Nazareth, and I blame
no modern Jew or negro for any one of his ancestors' crimes. I
am simply stating a fact.
In the leading negro "literary society" in Philadelphia, you
will not find a full-blooded negro. If his tint is a shade darker
than the half-breed the doors of the "literary society" are shut
against him.
I do not blame these young people for preferring whitewash to
soot. Mrs. Paddy, the rich butcher's wife of Chicago, now pre-
fers the marbles of ancient Grecian and modern Italian sculptors
to the grotesque plaster images of saints that once held her devotion.
She may have advanced in civilization largely through her hus-
band's stealings, but her tastes have changed, and she has a right
to her present preferences. So have the half-breed negroes of
America; but in the sight of that eternal justice which makes for
righteousness and dominates the universe and every atom in it to
highest ends, the American half-breed negro and Mrs. Paddy are
in all probability, both of them alike, on their way to speedy
hell and misery. Compounding with crime leads to more crime, and
both lead to hell.
Smite God's justice in the face, and though you be an Arch-
voL. VII,— 27.
402 THE GLOBE.
bishop, or a low-grade, blackest negro of some Southern swamp,
and though you run and hide as Mr. Adam did before you, it is all
the same — the Eternal will find you and export you or amalgamate
you with your kindred and useless ashes in the burnt-out silences
of eternal hell.
When Brazil exported the only decent man in its territory, and
the American press — that eternal organ of pandemonium — was
shouting for liberty in Brazil, the Globe Review, almost alone
among the standard magazines of this country, asserted that, more
than ever, and by special reason of its insult to Dom Pedro, Brazil
would become a land of anarchy and cut-throatism; and during
the last six years the American press has recorded sundry facts in
evidence of the correctness of my prophecy.
To-day, what the American press calls the "most highly edu-
cated negro minister in the world," stands up in Washington —
where two years ago the " Paulist Fathers " could not convert the
negroes because Thome had insulted them — and declares, in sub-
stance, Thorne was right, and Slattery & Co. wrong, and that the
black aristocrats and inborn loafers must go to Africa, or the white
people will re-enslave, export, spoil, or kill them.
But Thorne does not linger over exploded or exported problems
or cases. The question of to-day is, shall the white people of Spain,
resident in or born in Cuba, rule their own discovered and long-
settled possessions, or shall a lot of black and half-breed negroes
rule that island for a time before selling out to Uncle Sam, and
then, having sold out to Uncle Sam, what will become of the Cuban
negroes and half-breeds named?
On the technique of this fine problem I offer no prophecy at
present, but I express my earnest hope that, if the United States
Government undertakes to bluff or bully Spain out of her rightful
control of the Island of Cuba, the abler nations of the Old World
will unite with Spain and send the armies and navies of the Old
World all over here and not only blow our everlasting and sense-
less boasting and conceit out of our heads, but blow our Declara-
tion of Independence, our imbecile Constitution, our divorce laws,
reform laws, and the G. 0. P. itself, with all its white squadrons
and black squadrons into the everlasting depths of oblivion to
which they rightfully belong.
In conclusion, I beg leave to suggest to the Rt. Rev. Dr. Henry
M. Turner, of negro extraction, that if he and his people do not
MUST THE NEGRO 00 f 403
r
m get a speedy " wiggle on them " toward those divinely prepared
P shores of Africa, they may find so many ambitious scoundrels of
our white race comfortably ensconced there that even Africa itself
may be lost to the black man's control.
If I at all understand the problem of racial civilization, it has
taken the various representative nations of the two white sons of
Noah about four thousand years to attain such advancement as
we now have under the Czar of Kussia, Billy Hohenzollern of Ber-
lin, Mr. Faure of Paris, Queen Vic of England, and our little Major
— called President McKinley — of Washington, D. C, while the
descendants of Mr. Ham, of Noarkian fame, have been dancing
and laughing to the music of some very old songs, resembling
"The Girl I Left Behind Me." And if Tom Paine— drunk or
sober, or Wendell Phillips, inspired or uninspired, or my especial
pet, Mr. Priest Slattery of Baltimore, imagines that the Ham boys
are going to catch up to the Shem boys or the Japhet boys in a
day by reason of declarations of independence or white aristocratic
negro impertinence, or by Boston baked beans and poppycock hu-
manitarian theories of education, I beg to assure those hopeful
youngsters that they very imperfectly understand the true proc-
esses of national or natural evolution; and that while I do not
much respect the acme of white civilization so far attained, I see
very clearly such differences between this and any negro-civilization
that has met my vision up to date that I am much inclined to
Bishop Turner's view of the case, and hereby recommend the Amer-
ican and Cuban and San Domingo negroes to sail or swim for Africa
by the first steamers available or the first favorable ocean tides.
Au revoir and bon voyage. Bishop Turner & Co.
Truly yours,
William Henry Thorne.
THE MAGNETIC POWER OF ROME.
" In the National Revieiu Mr. Bernard Holland finds the secret
of Cardinal Manning's conversion in what Manning himself called
'the chief thing' — Hhe drawing of Pome.' * This,' he said, 'sat-
isfies the whole of my intellect, sympathy, sentiment, and nature
in a way proper and solely belonging to itself.^ So, adds Mr. Hol-
land, 'the true argument for Kome is higher magnetic power.'
404 THE GLOBE.
He presses for answer from some leading polemical Anglicans to
questions such as these: ' What is it in this world-wide association
which so powerfully attracts some and repels others? Is repulsion
one form or stage of attraction? This drawing felt in some form
or degree by many of the most finely tempered souls, is it from
the true center of all spiritual attraction, or whence? ' "
The above paragraph appeared in the Review of Reviews, last
season, under the style and title of " A Pertinent Anglican Query/'
Evidently these three questions cannot be met by decided par-
tisans on either side of the division-line; for it is patent, at the
outset, that the Catholic would answer from his own stand-point —
that stand-point of faith, which seems to prevent him from appre-
hending or even divining the mental attitude of others less or dif-
ferently illumined — while it is equally patent that the modern re-
ligionist of extreme dissenting proclivities would not entertain the
question at all, or answer, like an aged and most worthy clergyman
whom I once knew, " Superstition! pure superstition! " Where-
fore, one may safely assume, that the Review of Reviews directs its
query to " leading polemical Anglicans," on the ground, presum-
ably, of a certain sympathy which Anglicanism has for Rome, due
to her Catholic tendencies, which, somehow, every now and then,
get the upper hand of her Protestantism.
At all events, the questions themselves are curious ones and sure
to interest the thinker, be he Protestant Episcopal or a purely un-
biased and disinterested outsider. From the point of view of an un-
explained fact — for we know facts are stubborn things — of a mys-
terious, spiritual experience, vouched for so widely as to have the
solidity of actual testimony, as of affidavit, it possesses great interest;
and when we come to consider the delicate, poetic, and spiritual side
of it, this interest is infinitely heightened. The psychologist has
also his account therein; indeed, I fancy that the higher religious
view of it would be strengthened by the side-lights thrown from
these outer investigations — not so much as to the points involved,
which to the devout Catholic are settled already, as to the temper
and disposition of the outside world in their regard, and that of the
investigators themselves as shown in their methods of approncbing
them.
These persons presumably have not the light of faith, as Cath-
olics understand it; yet they must have some faith, some inner
illumination of the Spirit. Else they would not be fit investigators
THE MAGNETIC POWER OF ROME. 405
of any profound matter; and this is still more true of persons at-
tracted or drawn in the manner described. The base of sincerity
and reverence being secure, errors become like those of the astron-
omer about the stars, involuntary, regretted, and subject to cor-
rection always.
One very common and wide-spread error is this: that mere out-
side beauty of ritual is, in and of itself, a source of profound attrac-
tion. The brilliancy of waxen tapers, gorgeousness of vestments,
stateliness of ceremonial, scent of flowers, painted windows, pro-
cessions and the like, while appealing to a sense of the beautiful,
to the eye of the artist and to the lover of color, in the most intense
way, are not, in themselves considered, motives to holiness or
worship. Their value lies in their fitness as expressions of some-
thing other and greater than they. Their significance may be much
or little — even nothing, at times, as when the stage-scene in a play-
house represents a church. It is a mistake to suppose that, even
with the most ignorant, the husk is valued apart from the kernel.
The fussy Kitualistic rector cannot build up his decayed parish
through these agencies, save as spiritual realities enter the souls of
his flock to make them potent.
Of some other things this is not true. The uplifted cross speaks
of the Christ who died, though it be in a wilderness or in a hovel.
And sacred music has its own sweet and startling message to some
souls, as if a voice Divine had spoken. This, again, anywhere —
on the face of the green earth. These hold significance within
themselves, and in speaking of ritual, this being a vital distinction,
it is wisely borne in mind.
Therefore, when careless people speak — as they are very apt to
do — of (he ceremonial of Borne as her attraction,, it is well to make
them define precisely what they mean. Would the mere cere-
monial be potent apart from the august doctrine it enshrines?
How about similar ceremonial among Episcopal Ritualists? Is it
availing, apart from the measure of actual faith its promoters
possess?
No, the answer to the questions is far from lying so near the
surface. Antiquity has a charm for some minds and is an attractive
force in conservative circles in certain parts of the world; not in
the United States, however, where by the mass of men it is usually
flouted. To the average ISTew Englander, in particular, it seems
utterly futile — a new Church, like a new^ house, being better than
406 THE GLOBE.
an old one! No sentimental, ancient, ivy-covered attractiveness for
him!
The charm of authority, likewise — of a decisive voice speaking
with power from the See of Peter — only allures a few of the weak
or wavering. Eepublican independence takes quick alarm. In fine,
whatever attraction these forces may exert is for other lands than
ours; nor are they, anywhere, more than the merest fraction of
the whole potency.
The sound and sensible theology of Catholicism, fitted together
in every part and welded into a compact and beautiful whole, has,
however, great weight with clear minds, who come upon it, per-
haps, for the first time. Its admirable points are in the nature of
a surprise. To Protestants, imbued from childhood with an idea
of " the errors of Eome," her calm and dignified presentation of
dogma comes with a force, of which the Roman Catholic himself
can have but faint conception. Receive it or not, the stranger feels
he has come in contact with a power. And though this is beside
our topic, as exerting no occult fascination, it is satisfactory to find
that the attraction, of whatever kind it be, has a solid basis, whereon
the unimaginative and judicial intellect can truly rest.
It is not too much to say that, with some minds — and those of
the best — well-put, systematic dogma quietly advanced, would
prove effectual, for the very reason that such a sword needs no en-
chantment for its blow.
It is plain that we must seek the answer to our questions in
regions spiritual, somewhere among the unseen forces of the Divine.
We know that the brooding power of the Holy Ghost, in creative
energy, touches the human soul everywhere, without distinction;
in the desert or amid cloistered silences; also in a Methodist camp-
meeting or amid the drums and tambourine flare of the Salvation
Army. Why not in the beautiful Credos and Te Deums of an
ancient Church? Why not in the lives of saints and their deeds
of charity? Why not amid a glorious ceremonial and the ascend-
ing prayers of believers? " Surely this power from on high is
mystical attraction and of the highest tjrpe," says the Christian of
a newer fold. To him this is sufficient explanation of the matter,
and he utters faithfully the general voice of the separated brethren,
in suggesting that Protestantism may, not unfairly, be called a
special cultus of the Holy Ghost.
The Anglican alone rests unsatisfied. To him also belongs this
THE MAGNETIC POWER OF ROME. 407
belief, in all its fulness; but he has, likewise, a fine, strong con-
ception of something more. To him this answer seems imperfect.
If it cover all, he argues, why is there not like magnetic attraction
among other bodies of baptized believers? There is something
which Rome has, which they have not! And he strives to find it.
His brethren describe him as a High Churchman. He may enter
a brotherhood of Anglicans, or call his sacramental service a mass
and the like; but, in more likelihood, being a judicious man, he
quietly strives to imbue his people with more of Catholic truth.
He is feeling after that mysterious Presence which has charmed
the love and devotion of the Church throughout the ages. And
his search of Faith is rewarded of the Blessed Master; in some im-
perfect, mysterious, spiritual way he does find it. Over a blind,
wayward path he may indeed be journeying, and yet, as it were
from afar off, he catches the gleam and his people with him.
To his own surprise — and still more to theirs — deeper faith and
stronger spiritual vision bear practical fruit. A larger measure of
self-sacrifice, more devotion, more enthusiastic interest in the Mas-
ter's work begin to appear. The supreme cause works its effect.
Moreover, many are reconciled thereby who would otherwise look
upon the whole as a mere gorgeousness of religious idolatry. They
apply the Lord's own test, " By their fruits ye shall know them,"
and the single-minded clergyman is justified.
Then thoughtful souls begin to ask the why and wherefore.
Tiiey perceive that these things are close akin to the experiences
of the mediaeval Church; that the spiritual strength comes from
the same Source, whence the devout Catholic has drawn it for
ages. It is from the one Fountain, though drinking-cup and path
of approach differ.
At all events, they are conscious of being strangely and strongly
attracted. Now, "this drawing, felt in some form or degree by
many of the most finely tempered souls," is what puzzles Mr. Hol-
land. " Is it from the true center of all spiritual attraction? " he
inquires. Surely, surely, Mr. Holland! Whence else could it come?
Is there any phenomenon at all resembling it elsewhere in the
known world? And if not — if the perpetual miracle thus enacted
throughout the ages be unparalleled in sweetness and power — why
doubt its Divine origin? It is in regard to the mode of the Divine
energizing that Christian men differ, not as to the fact itself, on
either side, human or Divine.
40S THE GLOBS.
As I understand it, though theology be dangerous ground for
mere lay thinkers, the Catholic Church does not deny the presence
of the Holy Ghost in her highest miracle, the Sacrifice of the Mass;
still less, elsewhere, in more ordinary modes of operation. So that
she covers the Protestant ground fully, still having splendid space
for more! "No man cometh unto Me," said our Lord, "except
the Father draw him." In another connection He said, " And /,
if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself." And as Catholic
dogma seems to be that the three Persons of the Ever Blessed
Trinity are present in the Divine Sacrifice by virtue of their unity
in the Godhead, the question as to the source of attraction seems
sufficiently and overwhelmingly answered.
A query involving less theological peril is that of the strange
human experience hinted at by Mr. Holland. When our Lord,
himself, was on earth, the sacred historian declares, " there was
division because of Him." It was attraction and repulsion from
the first. This strange opposition, this conflict between light and
darkness, has been going on ever since. I do not believe that re-
pulsion is one form or stage of attraction. That seems to me like
a metaphysical subtlety or sophism. It is, indeed, true that re-
pulsion yields to attraction so often and with such sudden reaction
as to account for his question. The miracles of grace are some-
times such that we are confounded, and, in our amazement, doubt
their extent and reality. A Saul becomes a Paul so suddenly that
we try to explain the transaction by minimizing its scope. We
say to ourselves, " Saul of Tarsus could not really have been the
bitter persecutor he declares he was! Repulsion was only one form
of attraction with him! " But no such plea comes from the Apostle;
instead, the plain confession of his " repulsion " as a sin. " Being
exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange
cities." Nothing could have turned this repulsion into the con-
trary attraction save the light from heaven and the voice that said,
" I am Jesus whom thou persecutest! " The change from repulsion
to attraction is no easy transition like that from "one form or
stage " of feeling to another — else that vision were needless. But
it was a necessity; for heaven never wastes a miracle.
The idea that children should be left unbaptized and allowed
to stray into regions of repulsion — it may be on this very theory
that, in order to the final attraction the stage of repulsion must
precede it — is fraught with direful consequences. For Death may
^THE MAGNETIC POWER OF ROME. 409
come early or the miracle of conversion remain nnwrought. Truly,
sophisms have their clangers.
We have now to consider how the attraction works upon souls
and precisely what it is. In Mr. Holland's own wordg, " What is
it in this world-wide association which so powerfully attracts some
and repels others?"
Yet, as the old English writer accurately and quaintly declares,
" There are some and other some.'' Even those who are attracted
present widely varying types. There is a world-wide distance be-
tween the imaginative school-girl captured by what she believes
to be a miracle, as depicted in Madam Dahlgren's recent Rosary
article, and the case of Cardinal Manning. Mark the comprehen-
sive statement of the latter. " This," he says — the drawing of
Eome — " satisfies the whole of my intellect, sympathy, sentiment,
and nature in a way proper and solely belonging to itself." That
a sound and superior mind should find a solidity most restful to it-
self in the compact body of Catholic dogma we have already ad-
mitted; but there is more to say. The Cardinal does not stoj) with
a cold, intellectual satisfaction. The demands of sympathy and
sentiment are also met — he avers — and what we term the natural
impulses. To say truth, many of these same doctrines have a charm
within themselves, a beauty of feeling and fitness, perfectly dif-
ferentiated from logical power or force of authority. Take, for
examples, the ideas of Eeparation, Perpetual Adoration, which en-
shrines much of Heaven's own eternal blaze, the Grace of Union,
Intercessory Prayer for the Living and the Dead, and as many
more. These appeal to sympathy and sentiment, though they be
also dogma. What more beautiful thought than that of a possible
Reparation for the awful sin of Earth, day after day, against the
Eternal, His holy Name and Divine Majesty? What stirs native
tenderness of feeling like the sight of the great Church Militant
in prayer for the Dead? Why is not her solemn Requiem Mass
alike beautiful and precious? Many of the veriest doctrinal truths
are thus alive with light and hope.
The Protestant naturally asks, " Why have we not, also, these? "
He is told they are but errors, falsities of dogma — as, indeed, they
may be — the polemical brethren must decide that! but no one
explains the charm. Light and beauty and solace for souls lie in
these so-called falsities. That is our puzzle, and likely to puzzle
us a great while longer. It is a strange phenomenon. The Script-
410 THE GLOBE,
ure says, " That which doth make manifest is light." That which
sheds forth illumination of soul and spiritual peace, must it not
be of the True Light, and from it? Can error do this? Did error
ever do it? " Herein is a strange thing," said the blind man, after
his cure, to the disapproving crowd, " ihat ye know not whence
He is — and yet, He hath opened mine eyes." The fact of the
miracle was its own argument. He could see — see beautiful and
bright things which he never saw before! Is it not thus with
the soul, brought in contact with these rich and vivifying doc-
trines? The charm seems to lie in the fact that the dogma is
" all glorious within" that it reaches sympathy and sentiment
through the intellect — a thing which is not true of Calvinism, with
its cold, and in some measure convincing power, or of the Anglican
" Thirty-nine Articles."
In point of fact, no error, admittedly such, ever had this gift
of grace and comfort. From the Arian heresy to modern Inger-
sollism and Madame Eddy's Christian Science — from errors of
practice like religious persecutions, be tliey of the Inquisition on the
one hand or Salem witch-burnings on the other — from all these,
I say, there has been no radiation of light and peace. Nor has the
human soul ever found rest therein. Truth and righteousness bring
forth the fruits of the Spirit, sown in peace and ripening into joy
unspeakable. This, on the other hand, will hardly be disputed.
But, viewed in the light of these two statements, is not " the mag-
netic charm of Rome" something m.ore than a curious fact? Is
it not, even, a forceful argument?
Of course the attractiveness of Eonie being multifold and the
moods and tempers of men equally diversified, curious complica-
tions result. Approaching the skeptic here and the enthusiast
there, what charms the one repels the other. To Madame Dahl-
gren's miracle her wise and learned father only said, " Fudge! "
adding that he " had no time to investigate hallucinations." Yet
his position was more untenable than hers — faith being a positive
and doubt a negative force — to condemn without knowledge
swerves as far from balanced good-sense as to receive without in-
quiry; the faith-cure itself being as old as the world.
For many people the practices of Rome have strong fascination.
Such persons are usually indifferent to dogma — even, in some cases,
scornful of it! — but the kindly ministrations of Charity Sisters,
the lives of prayerful nuns, the benevolence of a good Franciscan,
THE MAGNETIC POWER OF ROME. 411
the self-denials of a Trappist embody for them the magnetic charm.
They feel that something Divine inspires all this; that some hidden
Light illumines these strange souls, these lives which are not the
common lives of humanity. The missionary priest, toiling in lone-
liness amid trials and privations, is an object-lesson of self-sacrifice,
and many are drawn to him and his Master, they know not how.
It is the power of the Cross, unfelt, perchance, in dogma, yet mani-
fest in living light.
Her actual religious practices, too, even in small things, have a
wide-spread charm. Take Millet's picture of " The Angelus," for
example; can anything more lovely be imagined? A shrine of
the Blessed Virgin in a lowly home, a peasant-woman of Normandy
with her beads, a village priest showering benedictions on his flock,
are all studies for the man who would know something of the fas-
cination Eome daily exerts. The painter catches the picturesque
beauty for his canvas, the poet feels it supply his analogous need,
the Protestant admires, though he turns gravely away. The Faith
of the Church, as expressed in these little things, has its reward.
The world is blest, and even the Protestant bows his head for
heavenly benediction, glad to feel there is something he, too, can
receive.
That the special devotion of Catholics to the Blessed Virgin
contributes immensely to the general charm will hardly be ques-
tioned. The beautiful vision that has floated over the world through
all the Christian centuries of a Virgin-Mother, sweet and pitiful,
with a comprehension of that world in its deeper needs and power
to meet those needs through intercession with the Almighty, is a
vision the distressed world will surely cling to. It has a hold upon
the heart; its might of love, a force past reckoning and past strug-
gling with. It conquers hardened men and degTaded women; its
womanly pity weaving a spell of light and up-lift. " The drawing
of Rome," here, is a drawing up into the heavens, where Dante saw
the Madonna, as he says in his Paradiso. Our ideals of virginity
and maternity find in her their best and purest expression; so that
" men of good-will " — whatever their position theologically — fol-
low the lead of Holy Scripture and call her " Blessed." There is
no more potent factor in our whole problem than this devotion
paid her by Catholics in every age and clime; its " magnetic charm '*
being the unfailing inspiration of a crowned and glorified woman-
hood.
412 THE OLOBE.
It is not this attractiveness, however, or anything of a more
general nature, in the sphere of Catholicism that Mr. Holland has
in mind. The great center of all Catholic worship — the Sacrifice
of the Mass — is the true source of her power. This he perfectly
comprehends. Spreading out in streams of beauty it floods all
lesser ceremonial with its own splendor, being the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and end, the first and the last.
It attracts some and repels others — true, Mr. Holland! — where
the Divine One is not Saviour, he is Judge. The human soul must
make either sweet submission or the great Refusal. It is an intense
demand, not to be evaded. It is a perfect demand; the unspeak-
able Love will have all — or nothing. It is a tender demand — and
conscience has a fire unquenchable, remorse, a torrent of tears for
the man who — God help him! — is repelled by the tenderness that
would lift and save and glorify.
Perhaps it is this immediate Presence of the Lord which, in the
Roman Church, serves to accentuate the demand He everywhere
makes of the children of men. The Divine voice may come from
her altars with a deeper thrill, to interior souls, especially, trained
to habitudes of faith. Even the stranger catches the inspiration
— in a glimmer, as it were — through the puzzle of a strange service,
the seeming babble of a foreign tongue. Can the magnetic silence
and the throbbing music-voice, which alike stir the depths of his
being, have other complete or profound explication? Can we do
else than say with the Apostle, " It is the Lord " ?
As a matter of antecedent likelihood, is it not in keeping with
other modes of Divine action? Would He not thus softly signify
His presence? How else could He speak to mere mortals? How
better commune with their dull spirits? How else inspire and
comfort them? How else say, "Peace, it is I" ? Invisibly He
must come, if at all! Gently, gloriously, spiritually, speak! Silent-
ly, imperceptibly, as the sunlight the flower, turn the repellent,
wilful spirit of man toward and unto Himself!
Is not this " the drawing of Rome " ? Or do we need, in the
premises, further light from the " polemic Anglican " ?
Gardiner, Me. Caroline D. Swan.
r
ABOUT SHELVING PROTESTANT PARSONS. 413
MARY'S JOY.
With deeper fire than that of Bethlehem's star
Glowed Mary's heart as on the Holy Child
She gazed and saw within his eyes so mild
The peace on earth swift-echoing afar.
Glad angels held the gates of heaven ajar,
Watching in love-lit rapture when she smiled.
0 Mary, Jesu, pure and undefiled,
No sin or wrong your holiness can mar.
To touch his baby hands, his lips to kiss,
And worshipful to fold him to her breast.
Such awe maternity again ne'er finds.
Thou Virgin Mother, the divine behest
That made this Child thine own and all mankind's.
Gave thee a joy transcending human bliss.
Abigail Taylor.
ABOUT SHELVING PROTESTANT PARSONS.
During the past few months there has been any amount of wise-
acre moral gush going the rounds of the so-called religious and
some of the quasi-literary papers of the East touching the sup-
posed sacrilegious habit that the Protestant churches are said to
have fallen into of " shelving " their preachers who are over fifty
years of age.
I wish to point out the fact that this wild cry of " mad dog " has
much more of sensation than of truth in it; to point out the strik-
ing contrast between the Catholic and Protestant churches in this
particular, and to emphasize the real cause of the Protestant evil
complained of — as far as the evil really exists — and to intimate
wherein a cure for this evil may be found.
The venerable Theodore Cuyler seems to have been the leader
in this holy war against the so-called wickedness and ingratitude
of modern Protestant churches, and yet he himself is a striking
example of the general falsehood of the complaint named, for dur-
ing many long years after he was fifty years of age his following
414 THE GLOBE.
was stronger and more appreciative than during the earlier years
of his ministry.
I am not now as familiar with the movements of Protestant
churches and pastors as I was thirty years ago, but I am satisfied
that the roots of the evil, as far as it exists, must be sought in the
changed and changing spirit and work of the Protestant ministry
quite as much as in the changed and changing attitude of the people.
Like people, like priests, the world over; and in order to bring out
this thought more clearly I will glance at a few of the leading
clergymen of our larger cities a generation or more ago. Certainly
they were not then shelved at fifty years of age.
A generation or more ago, when Socinian Unitarianism was still
a power in Boston, Drs. Robinson, Gannett, and Ware, and later
Drs. James Freeman Clarke and Peabody, were all stronger in their
influence and in the affectionate regard of their people when they
were from fifty-five to sixty-five years of age than during the earlier
years of their ministry.
During the same period Dr. Bacon of New Haven and Dr. Bur-
ton of Hartford were the ablest and most appreciated Congrega-
tional pastors in those cities when their own lives were approaching
the well-won rewards of three-score years.
In New York, during the same generation, the venerable Dr.
Tyng of the Episcopal Church, Dr. Thompson of the Broadway
Tabernacle, Dr. William Adams of the Madison Square Presby-
terian Church, Dr. Chapin of the Broadway Universalist Church,
Dr. Hitchcock of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, and
Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Cuyler of Brooklyn, when way
past fifty years of age, were all greater powers in their Protestant
pulpits than any of the rising brood of youngsters could claim or
hope to be, and they were well loved and well supported by their
admiring congregations.
In Philadelphia the same general truth holds good of the gen-
eration in question. Rev. Albert Barnes of the Washington Square
Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Boardman of the then Walnut
Street Presbyterian Church, Rev. Dr. Chambers of the then First
Independent Church, and Rev. Dr. Furness of the First Unitarian
Church were all in their prime, able, alert, popular, successful,
loved and honored by their people, and still drew full houses of ad-
miring listeners when they were past sixty years of age; and the
last named — Rev. Dr. Furness — was still the most eloquent and
r
ABOUT SHELVING PROTESTANT PARSONS. 415
the most appreciated Unitarian minister in the United States when
he was long past seventy years of age.
Indeed, there are successful ministers in the United States to-
day who are close in the neighborhood of eighty years of age,
but they are of the past generation of parsons — men who, besides
being sincere in their faith, were well content to remain as pastors
over the same flock that called them in the early years of their
ministry, and were not forever itching for larger salaries and more
fashionable congregations.
Now distinctly that generation of Protestant preachers has
passed or very nearly passed away, and in their old places we have
the noisy, reform, rhetorical, and soulless nobodies who attempt
to fill the same pulpits in our day. And here is where the shoe
pinches, and here is the root of the evil complained of by the parties
named.
Instead of studying the Scriptures in order to understand their
meaning and to be inspired by the spirit of the ancient prophets
and the Apostles of our Lord, the present generation of pulpit
orators, so called, have studied the long ago exploded theories of
socialism, total abstinence, sociology, and Herbert Spencerism, and
above aU have studied how to get at more lucrative parishes; have
learned how to swing their arms and roll their voices at so-called
schools of elocution, have learned the long-winded and over-diluted
language of Emersonian transcendentalism, and so expect to float
heavenward as well-filled windbags and draw their followers after
them by selling seats to the highest bidders; and the average con-
gregations of our new generation have changed quite as basely as
their pastors.
Meanwhile the average salaries of ministers have been greatly
increased, so that churches which used to pay the men I have
named anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 a year now pay their
bloated and blatant successors anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000
a year.
Meanwhile, also, the parsons themselves, having neither religion
nor natural gifts of any superior character, have ceased to be loved
by their congregations, have simply become rhetorical phono-
graphs for the sensational filling and rental of pews; in a word,
have grown to bear precisely the same relation to Protestant con-
gregations that actresses and actors bear to theatrical managers,
and as soon as the star or stock phonograph ceases to draw a crowd
416 THE GLOBE.
of so-called pious and gaping fools, a n«w parson— that is, a new
human phonograph — must be introduced and the old one thrown
aside. The pews must be filled, revenues must be raised, and if the
old phonograph cannot do this, shelve the machine, certainly, say
the trustees, and get one with a Talmage rattle and twang, or one
with a Beecher strut, a man-machine with peculiarity of voice or
manner, that, like a scraped and whitewashed elephant, he may
draw a crowd for a while.
Like people like priest, as we said. The parson is seeking money
and notoriety, and the people are seeking a parson that can raise
the wind. Under these circumstances, it seems to me as imper-
tinent as it is unjust for the phonograph parsons to complain that
the congregations will not use them when their voices have grown
squeaky and their hinges rusty with age and with general yell-
ing.
Managers understand that theatrical stars lose their voice powers
after a certain age, and the stars usually understand this also.
Owners of race-horses do not expect old horses to race like young
ones, and if the parsons of our day have reduced their profession
— as I hold they have done — to the level of dramatic performances
or to the level of the race-course — where the winnings depend upon
the prime condition of the muscular organs, and not upon the
sublimities of thought, the depth and sincerity of faith and heart,
not upon the power of the preacher to instruct and guide the hu-
man soul — for what human Protestant soul wants or needs to be
instructed or guided any more — ^why should they complain because
their managers, the trustees of the churches, take them at their
own estimate and shelve them in due season?
As far, therefore, as the complaint named is true, I look upon
the fact as a righteous retribution of heaven — a deserved humilia-
tion for a set of men who, while claiming to be ministers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, are too often the veriest worldlings of pride, sen-
suality, and selfishness. Hence they must take their chances with
other men of the world, and especially with those men and women
whose drawing powers depend upon the prime condition of their
muscular system, as I said. In truth, the case is worse than this,
for while men of any natural force of thought or any natural gifts
of oratory can and do hold those powers and can and do wield them
in masterful fashion well up to their seventieth year, the mere
phonograph rhetorician — engaged in the ministry — wears himself
ABOUT SHELVING PROTESTANT PARSONS. 417
out by his own shallow falseness, and is apt to be good for nothing
and less than nothing after he is fifty years of age.
To my mind the root of this evil is deep in our modern system
of school and college training, in our false political economies, in
our total and infernal shallowness of soul and lack of loyalty to
truth in all lines; and I do not look for any general improvement
in Protestant methods and life until the very lie of Protestantism
[has been generally acknowledged, repented of, and forsaken.
Neither do I look for any permanent improvement in our social
and national life until the essential lie at the heart of the French
Revolution and the American Revolution has been seen, admitted,
repented of, and forsaken by the so-called advanced nations of mod-
ern civilization to-day; and how far we are from all this may be
imagined when only now and then do I find any man of sufficient
insight to see and understand how radical are the blows of the axe
am laying at the root of our modern upas-tree of Protestant and
"democratic and eternal falsehood.
Shelve your seedy parsons by all means; shelve your seedy .poli-
ticians by all means. If the genius of modern civilization is purely
a matter of athletics — why, let the scorchers take the prizes and
go to the devil where they belong.
As far as I can see there is still room and work, and bread and
honor, though perhaps with suffering and sorrow — as of old — for
[all men of genuine character and ability in this world, and I am
quite willing to risk their chances in the world to come.
In a word, as far as the complaint named is true, Protestant par-
sons over fifty are shelved because they are in no sense fit repre-
sentatives of the Master they profess to serve, and because the age
in which we live cares a great deal more for football, baseball, bi-
cycles, theatres, gambling, lust, money-making, and every lowest
form of vice and hypocrisy, than it cares for God and truth and the
Saviour of the world.
Like people like parsons; both are joined to their ideals, and
the sooner the Almighty sets about that world-wide shelving of
liars and imbeciles now sitting on the thrones and altars of this
world the better; I for one shall be pleased. I gladly admit, in
fact, positively assert, as of my own knowledge and experience,
that there are many splendid exceptions to the general character-
ization of the Protestant ministry here given.
In the first place, there are still living many representatives of
VOL. VII.— 28.
418 THE GLOBE.
the last generation of Protestant parsons, men ranging all the way
from fifty to eighty years of age, gifted, consecrated, and as ear-
nest in their work of preaching the truth and trying to save souls
as are any of the best priests in the Catholic Church — and they
are not shelved either. In the next place, we can say just as posi-
tively that among the newer and more rhetorical and more worldly
generation of youngsters there are exceptionally good, devoted, and
gifted men in all sects of the Protestant ministry; but these are
the exceptions, and the rank and file are a low-browed, shallow,
and noisy set of men, without natural refinement and still more
painfully without any supernatural or spiritual power.
The Young People's Christian Endeavor humbuggery could not
kick its heels so high or make such a figure in our effete Protes-
tantism if the modern Protestant ministry were much other than
a sham and a show.
Hence, instead of complaining of the shelving of Protestant par-
sons over fifty years of age, I rejoice in the fact, as far as it is a
fact, and pray God for such new and universal scourgings of the
money-changers out of Christ's temples everywhere as shall give
true men and true women a chance to breathe again.
Here, however, I wish to call attention to the striking contrast
between the average ministry of the Protestant churches — so-called
— and the average priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, es-
pecially in the matter referred to.
In the first place, I understand that by reason of the hard work
and the sacrifices required of young priests and of students for the
priesthood only a very small proportion of priests ever reach the
age of fifty years; but my experience has taught me that whether
young or old these men, in more than ninety cases out of a hun-
dred, are full of faith, full of zeal for righteousness and truth, full
of that willingness characteristic of their Master and all His true
followers — to sacrifice their lives for the good and salvation of the
souls committed to their care, and everywhere throughout the
Church the evidences are palpable that, recognizing the fact that
faith and thought and every power of ministering for the good
of souls, increases with the years of a faithful soul, the Church
honors most those who have passed the age at which Protestant
parsons are said to be shelved, and it is just as palpable that as far
as faithful Catholics allow themselves to depend upon human in-
strumentality in seeking and receiving the graces of heaven for
r
ABOUT SHELVING PROTESTANT PARSONS, 419
their souls, they love and revere most the priests whose locks are
gray and whose voices mayhap are weakened a little by the stress
of labor and of years.
Would to God I could make this distinction between the atti-
tude of the Protestant and Catholic clergy toward their people
and of the people toward the clergy clear to every Protestant in
the world. I am not saying that all priests are saints or that all
Catholics revere them. In the main, however, the priest is there
to instruct, to guide the conscience and the will in all duty, and the
people gladly recognize their need of his guidance, and hence the
older, the more venerable the priest, and the greater his experience
in virtue and wisdom, the more loved and the more welcome is he
in his ministries to every true Catholic soul.
Good and noble and venerable priests write me, however, that
there is a small but perhaps a growing class of worldly and rhetorical
priests even in the Catholic Church; but I take it that these men
are only the exceptional Judases of our day, and that they are in
a very small minority. Yet the follies of the age, the lies of the
age, the sophistries of the age, the Americanisms of the age, are
so numerous and so inviting that there may be more danger than
we dream of in this modem tendency toward what is called a lib-
eral and fashionable and rhetorical priesthood. Let us hope not,
and may the day soon dawn when our priests, being charged with
a new and apostolic fervor of righteousness, and our people filled
with new longings for purer lives and a sweeter charity, the gospel
of the Son of God, as expounded by His only Catholic and Apos-
tolic Church, may kindle the world afresh with the light and glory
of the Cross until Protestant and pagan nations, and even infidel,
upstart, self-willed, conceited, self-righteous, and bragging Yan-
keedom may really be brought to its knees in humble faith and in
willing and glad submission to the light and authority of this one
and only true Church of the Eternal and Living God. Then what
a shelving of Protestant parsons there will be, and what rejoicings
in earth and in heaven by reason of the same.
William Henet Thorne.
420 THE OLOBE.
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII.
"Nothing can be great/' says Longinus, "the contempt of
which is great." Neither wealth nor honor gives a man a title to
greatness, for one of the very marks of greatness of mind is to
despise these gifts of fortune and to be above all desire of them.
True greatness is not bound to any particular class; it often shines
out from the by-paths of life, manifests itself under the pressure
of poverty and distress, amidst the jeers and indignation of the
world. No man whose sentiments or actions are little and grovel-
ling is deemed great, but he whose soul is lofty, whose heart rises
superior to misfortune, he only is truly great.
Of such stamp of character was St. Gregory VII., called also
by his family name Hildebrand. His was a peculiar grandeur, and
his place in history a peculiar elevation. His life was like a climax
of greatnesses, moral, intellectual, and political, each one impress-
ing us more favorably, till disposed together they form something
sublime. As a youth he gave up human honors to follow, through
affection, Gregory VI.; as a man he evidenced a glorious magnan-
imity in defence of spiritual supremacy; as a Pontiff he hurled
defiance at an antagonistic world, alone and independent in his
assertion of Religion's rights. Thus it would seem to all right-
minded men, Hildebrand's name stirring up within their souls the
most vivifying memories, while to many a mind it savors of evil
omen.
It is a great pity that modem writers like Villemain have been
so far derelict to justice and truth as to mould their judgment of
Catholic heroes according to their predilections; it is a burning
shame also that many a so-called liberal Catholic has followed their
standard. Such is not writing history conformable to its lofty pur-
pose. If personal feeling dictate to a writer the measure by which
he is to picture a hero, then history assumes a dangerous aspect,
and if writers treating prejudicially the character of St. Gregory
VII. have labored to engage our belief, tlien their efforts have been
malicious, unworthy of credence, and dishonorable. There is not
in the whole life of this heroic Pontiff a quality more apparent
nor more generally acknowledged than that capital attribute in
human action — good intention. Why, then, with a property so
r
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VIL 421
agreeable and a power so invaluable, have writers blackened his
memory with the loathsome accusation of meanness and self-
created supremacy? Again, is it lawful for us moderns to sit down
and mete out judgment on the conduct of mediaeval personages
according to our present views of life and our present rule of ac-
tion? St. Gregory VII. consented to the deposition of Henry IV.
of Germany, and because he committed this "foul crime," have
we the right to judge his action inconsiderate of the circumstances
of his times, his extraordinary power and his office of Mediator- be-
tween Christian nations? If such be the case, truly, " ccecis er-
ramus in undis."
The correct view which history presents of Gregory is that of a
great director who steers successfully the doings of his age into
the channel of time, and the scene is one wherein a towering genius
and a gigantic mind predominate. AVhether psychologically con-
sidered in the sanctuary of the souFs feelings and thoughts or
viewed in the bright dramatism of the statesman's career, Gregory's
character possesses a fascinating glamour; he is equally the sub-
ject of astonishment and reverence. Placed in juxtaposition with
a long line of Papal predecessors, he rises above all in his rare
union of golden qualities. For soundness of judgment, depth of
penetration, and firmness of principle, he surpasses all his peers
in the Papacy. Perhaps it is on account of this beautiful array
of royal attributes that he has ever been the object of praise and
animadversion. Hildebrand's life was in the main a continued
tempest, but to meet its howling winds and dashing billows, he
possessed an unyielding firmness of will. He was aggressive, but
his aggressiveness centered in right, and when spurred on by the
consciousness of justice and honesty, only then did his mind, dis-
ciplined to resistance, overleap impetuously the barriers to over-
whelm opposition. That in his office of supreme ruler of Christen-
dom he distinguished not between prince and peasant; that with
all the innate vigor of his being he fought to confirm and
strengthen ecclesiastical rights and privileges, is not condemnable;
for if there be a duty plain to the conscience of a Eoman Pontiff,
if there be an obligation hallowed by all that is just and true in
the doctrine of the Church, it is that of resistance to the lawless
encroachments of the civil power. What Gregory VII. fought and
suffered for in the eleventh century, Leo XIII. contends and suf-
fers for to-day. And how other could these saintly Pontiffs act
422 THE OLOBE.
after swearing at the foot of God's altar to defend His Church by
every vital energy, even unto death?
Gregory's name is glorious and immortal. Yet its glory and
immortality must be traced rather to the influence which his
genius, schooled by affliction and vicissitude, has exerted over the
development of ecclesiastical and civil power than to the hidden
virtues and saintly character which so many writers have been at
pains to asperse. It is an indisputable fact that from the time of
St. Gregory VII., so potent was the revolution which he effected
in Church and state, so fortunate were its results, that a distinct
line of demarcation was drawn between the spiritual and the tem-
poral arm, the independence of both spheres of rule was guaran-
teed, and thus society plunged into disorder and contention bent
to receive its coup de grace from men who knew well how to value
his example. Yet Gregory VII. established no new dynasty; he
left, however, to the world the memory of his giant vigor and his
devoted zeal, the dying declaration of his love for justice and his
hatred for iniquity. Like to the strong and sturdy oak, "the
pride of the forest," his genius expanded with time, ever increas-
ing in vigor, acquiring extension by the displacement of less worthy
and useless surroundings, until at length, towering in majestic
beauty far above its companion works of nature, it symbolizes in-
dependence, fortitude, and perpetuity. Or like the rock imbedded
'neath the depths of an ocean waste, surviving the wash of tempest
and storm, Gregory arises grand and haughty over the subsiding
forces of revolution and chaos. Such he was as statesman, ruler,
and Pontiff.
" With comprehensive mind and truth endowed,
No vulgar passion his great soul control'd;
Rich in the science that a priest required.
With ardent zeal which love divine inspired."
St. Gregory appeared when the world was in a state of transi-
tion. In earlier days from Rome, which the poet called Berum
pulcJierrima Roma, had gushed forth the spring-tides that had in-
fused life and energy into civilization. We know how, from her
haughty hills — those symbols of her arrogant sovereignty — ancient
Rome ruled the world, and how turreted on these seven mountain-
tops she proudly boasted of her world-wide dominion. We also
have read how, in the economy of the world's Eternal Ruler, this
r
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VIL 423
Queen of the Universe, wrapped in her drapery of luxury and
power, was forced to bend her haughty head to the sweet yoke of
Christianity. Centuries of unrestrained empire had elevated Rome
unwisely beyond all healthful prudence, and it was some impulse,
more than a natural one, which drove in aftertimes the serried
hordes of Goth, Visigoth, and Hun from their fastnesses in the
very heart of barbarism down to the golden gates of Roma sterna.
Eome gradually falls. She never dares to raise her head, and the
student of history may vainly look and fondly peer down the long
vista of time for her subsequent rise; he must despair of her re-
generation evermore, till the sacred Ldbarum waves high over her
heaven-blessed walls. Then Rome awakens from her lethargy, and
becomes the Pons Sacradotii and Roma felix. She again rises be-
fore the world, but devoid of the false glitter of her ancient ma-
terial brilliancy. Christian and free. Peace and contentment now
smile over her, till restless of her Western home she seeks an abode
in the Orient. This act of her ruler in changing the seat of em-
pire to Byzantium was political suicide, and as the years go on she
sinks into oblivion. One power alone preserves strength enough
to re-establish rule, and that power was the Church. An inde-
pendent realm now appears above the horizon of anarchy, and
though centuries intervene and a long winter of darkness settles
over the earth, it does not die, but " only sleepeth."
The first Pope who raised the Church from the rending influ-
ences of disorder and misrule to a high standard of union and
strength was Pope Sylvester II., the first Frenchman whose privi-
lege it was to attain to the Pontifical throne. From the reign of
Leo III. a wide difference had existed between the spiritual and
the temporal power. Sylvester II. restored the former harmony
between them, and though Pope had to depend on prince for aid
and support, this close intimacy did not for many years prove
prejudicial to the interests of religion. At his death his admirable
work was undone, and party clangor, forced for years to be silent,
burst forth with a fury that exceeded the bounds of precedent and
parallel. The sacred diadem of the Church became the object at
which a new vandalism grasped, and it seemed to aim at the total
destruction of Christian faith. It was a foolish labor — this attempt
to create popes unlawfully, and its folly was a curse to the world.
iVmidst the dissension which grew thick and fast in the bosom
of the Church, while crime and disloyalty polluted the office of the
424: THE GLOBE.
sacred ministry, a great Pontiff, as if specially missioned by Divine
Providence to undertake the herculean task of purifying the ranks
of the clergy and checking the inroads of the temporal on the spir-
itual sphere, now appeared to bear the honors as well as the tribula-
tions of the Papal insignia. At this stage of history, St. Gregory
VII. arises — a massive obelisk over the wavering, tottering fabric
of mediaeval polity that sinks crushed by the weight of its moun-
tainous excesses in Church and state. The beginning of the
eleventh century gave birth to the man who was thereafter to be
the glory of Italy, the pride of the Church, and the regeneration
of society. Little is known of his early youth save that he was of
humble origin, and yet that little mirrors his future. It was said
that while a child, as he was sitting beneath the carpenter's bench
of his father, he so disposed the shavings that fell from it as to form
these words of the Psalmist: " Dominahitur a mare usque ad mare"
a wonderful forecast of his future dignity. Although his early
years are shrouded in darkness, we may well suppose that many a
noble inspiration, many a longing of soul must have come over
him, and living as he did under the golden glow of the incompar-
able Tuscan sunshine, he felt all the soul-inspiring sentiments
which the deep, soft blue skies of his native land evoke. His times
were not noticeable for intellectual life, and if many a dark mist
overhung his earlier days, he seemed not to come under its influ-
ence; he was providentially fitted for greater days to come.
Gregory began the drama of his varied life early, for as a youth
we find him following him that was afterwards Pope Gregory VI.,
his teacher, into the cloister of Cluny. This free-will act shows
the vitality of his feelings. Love for his preceptor and spiritual
father draws him away from the world; this same transcendent
vitality animates the whole of his memorable career. Later, he
makes the quick transition from the sombre halls of Cluny to the
brilliant royalties of the German court. Henry III. has bidden
him to come and instruct his heir; the king recognized in him al-
ready that,
" His were the loftiest attributes of mind,
The solid judgment and the taste refined,
The quick perception and the searching scan,
"Which measures motives and which looks through man."
The young Tuscan monk had drunk deeply of the cup of religious
life; his soul was uplifted; his thoughts and aim enlarged; his
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII. 425
sympathy for his first love, the Church, touched anew; he was now
nerved to everlasting conflict for the right and the true.
When Bruno, Bishop of Toul, was nominated to the Roman pur-
ple hy Henry III. of Germany, he besought Hildebrand to ac-
company him to Eome. The sage monk of Cluny picked up but
one golden grain from Tradition's stream, and, showing it to the
newly proclaimed Pope, convinced him that Roman approbation
and Roman votes alone elected the ruler of the Church. Bruno
hearkened to this counsel, adopted it, and was crowned Vicar of
Christ under the title of Leo IX. He selected Gregory for his prin-
cipal adviser, and ruled well the Church of God. All through Leo's
reign, and in the subsequent pontificates of Victor II., Stephen IX.,
Nicholas II., and Alexander II., Hildebrand was the soul of the
Papal administration; one can see the shaping skill of his genius
in the papal protest against civil oppression, in the condemnation
of the prevalent simony and clerical incontinence, and in the con-
stant endeavors to lift up from the slough of misery and long-last-
ing degradation the household of faith. History gives us the best
panegyric of Hildebrand. A great and prominent man for thirty
years, when but a wish, a word, would have placed him on the
Papal throne, he expresses neither. His matchless humility and his
marvelous disinterestedness are but the lamp which lights up his
beautiful character. What a suggestive meaning is contained in
the words of St. Peter Damian who called him " the impregnable
shield of the Roman Church " : Inexpugndbilibus Romance Ecclesim
dypeisj domino meo Hildebrando.
There was a true philosophy in all that Hildebrand counseled.
His main efforts were directed toward the reformation of the world;
he wished to re-Christianize it through the intervention of the
Church. He saw no salvation for Christendom only in so far as it
bent submissive to religion, and to wipe out the dark blots which
enemies of the true faith had forced upon the Church he consid-
ered the grand and pre-eminent achievement of the Roman Pontiff.
Certainly his energy and firm consistency may often appear too
extremely severe; but has the world ever witnessed a change brought
about by temporizing measures or even by pure philanthropy? He
arrayed himself against the Csesarism of his times, against that
political doctrine which aimed at the subversion of the Church,
and in attempting this, his colossal vigor was exercised to crush
paganism, for the state-craft of mediaeval days was nothing more
426 THE GLOBE.
nor less than the old pagan policy clothed in a quasi-Christian
By the unanimous consent of the Roman clergy and people,
which was after a long delay sanctioned by the approval of Henry
III. of Germany, Hildebrand was enthroned as Pope in the
Church of St. Peter ad Vincula on June 29, 1073. One great
victory had been gained by his election, that of guaranteeing to
the proper electors, the Eoman clergy and people, the right of se-
lecting the Roman Pontiff. Truth, wisdom, and sanctity had shone
from all that Hildebrand had hitherto done; now as Gregory VH.,
the supreme Pontiff, these were to receive additional lustre in the
holy conflict which he, as the representative of right, was to wage
with the powers of blood and iron. Scarcely had the rejoicing at-
tendant on his coronation died away before the war began. It was
the giant struggle of civilization with barbarism, God's cause ar-
rayed against princely and priestly lust and ambition. Yet even
in the midst of this terrible warfare we find Gregory evincing a
wondrous vastness of intellect — at one time striving to secure for
poor pilgrims an unrestrained privilege to make their devotions in
the Holy Land, at another contending for the liberties of the French
prelates; now advising paternally the rules of Central Europe,
again instructing the wild, untutored Norsemen and the degen-
erate posterity of dark Africa.
Of all his troubles, the one for which personal happiness was
sacrificed was his conflict with Henry IV. of Germany. Gregory
was placed in a very trying position; he was forced to accommodate
his rule to the confused state of society; he had to cope with
attacks from temporal rulers from every side, and yet he felt that
he was bound to extirpate from the sullied bosom of the Church
the scandalous, cankerous vices of simony and incontinency. But
he faltered not, hesitated not to begin the warfare from the first
instant of his accession, and although before him he saw naught
save persecution and violent death, he was deterred by no obstacle
of power or human respect from the conscientious fulfilment of
his duty. Should we marvel to see him hurl anathema at prince
and bishop alike, when, regardless of their fealty to the Church,
they buy and sell, sacrilegiously, divine offices and sacred things?
St. Peter censured and condemned the author of simony; could his
successor, Gregory VII., consistently with his duties, be blind to
the nefarious proceedings of Henry IV. ?
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII. 427
To understand the cause of the great battle that Gregory VII.
waged against the German Emperor, as well as to comprehend the
reason of his differences with bishops and priests in different parts
of Europe, one must look impartially at the degraded condition
of the Church in his times, and at the character of those against
whom he used the terrible coercive power of the Church. It must
be remembered that there was one leading principle according to
which Gregory dealt with kings and princes, and that was, so soon
as rulers went outside of the sphere of the civil power and en-
croached on ground over which they had no jurisdiction, he, in his
capacity as supreme spiritual ruler of the world, warned them of
their incompetency and injustice. If then they did not desist, he,
as the guardian of religious liberty, pronounced their usurpation
sacrilegious, and when necessity demanded, he excommunicated
them. And in thus limiting the bounds, beyond which the civil
power dare not move, in drawing the line of division between the
spiritual and the temporal, he was giving to the world order, har-
mony, civilization, and universal peace.
If, to be keenly alive to religious interests, yet not to be want-
ing in fairness to others, to be aggressive when necessity exacts
it; to be aspiring, to be progressive, if this is to be a master of
true polity, to be a safe director of peoples, in short, to be an ideal
ruler, then Gregory VII. was pre-eminently a good, true, and
faithful sovereign. For what other end was his policy framed, if
not for the resurrection of his charge, if not for the glory of God's
Church?
When Henry's oppression became so intensified that he wished
to crush Saxon and Eoman alike, and when the German autocrat
desired to subject to his degrading absolutism the holiest preroga-
tives and privileges of faith, how noble is Gregory's conduct! To
crouch under such an iron rod of oppression, to profess an acquies-
cence in acts of injustice, cruel, despotic, and subversive of religious
freedom, was to this man of God a manifest vending of interests
the most sacred for the worldly favor of a tyrant.
From his entrance into public life Gregory had endeavored, by
just and fair means, as the promoter and defender of ecclesiastical
rights, to extirpate and annihilate the hydra of simony. Simony
had enervated the vigor of ecclesiastical zeal; it had spread dire
destruction over the sacred face of the Church; and few indeed
were the episoopal sees, few the consecrated altars administered
428 THE OLOBE.
to by pure and zealous incumbents. The facile princess of the
mediaeval simonists was Henry IV. of Germany; against him, there-
fore, with the true spirit of generalship, Gregory directed his
assaults.
Who was this royal malefactor that disturbed all religious and
social order? A man, a king who lacked all that was manly or
kingly. A debauchee, whose ferocity in victory could not be re-
strained within respectable bounds, and whose sycophancy in defeat
was the most servile exhibition of cowardice and perfidy. A man
who never knew the value of an oath, who was the disgusting object
of his own nation's hatred. It was v/ith this mediaeval Nero that
Gregory grappled, with this miserable apology of a feudal ruler.
How modern writers can sympathize with such a ruthless plunderer
and state-robber is beyond conception. How human admiration
can fondly dwell on the memory of a king in whose heart coexisted
everything that was irreligious, vile, arid base, is something in-
credible. Pity the man's guilt and misery, but do not exercise
your charity at the expense of his saintly and high-minded oppo-
nent. Moral feeling ought not to run after semblances, it ought not
to be duped by the cold, public outlines of a man, but rather fol-
low the warm life-blood, the high, noble, transcendent virtue of
heroes and saints.
The history of Henry as regards his treatment of Church and
Pontiff is the tale of one of the most rapacious and accomplished
pirates that ever played the part of plunderer and spoliator of ec-
clesiastical property; his parallel is to be seen only in our modern
Italian incarnations of political ruffianism. But Henry had his
Nemesis, and this stern impersonator of retributive justice was
Gregory VII., who met violence and treachery with the spiritual
thunders of the Church. It is interesting to take a brief survey
of the history of this struggle.
Throughout Europe the Church had acquired much temporal
property from the bequests of pious princes and nobles. These
temporalities were attached to bishoprics, abbeys, and religious
houses. They were the legitimate fruits of inheritance, to which
the Church had a just right in the law of God and man. Generally
the estates and lands thus inherited were quite extensive, and to
honor the Church and place her ministers on a footing with the
temporal peers of their realms, princes attached different titles of
nobility to them. So these temporalities became feuds or fiefs, to
r
niLDEBRAND TUB ORE AT— POPE OREOORT VII. 429
obtain which certain formalities were required; investiture by the
lord or prince and an oath of fealty by the tenant. This practice
dated from Charlemagne's time, and did not prove for a goodly
number of years harmful to the integrity of faith and order. " But
the fairest right may be sullied by abuse," and this ingrafting of
feudal principles on religion opened the way to corruption and
usurpation. Ambitious and avaricious rulers could not resist the
temptation to encroach on the rights of religion, and disdaining
to conform to the beautiful line of division between the spiritual
and the temporal, they subserved their own interests by making
marketable commodities of bishoprics and abbeys. The misery
wliich they brought on the Church by their simoniacal proceedings
was a deplorable evil that helpless Pontiffs could not master.
Scarce an ecclesiastic could be found in the nortliern countries
who held a licit tenure of office, so extensive was the sacrilegious
behavior of these mediaeval rulers. It required a Hercules to cleanse
the Church from this pestilence; it required a fearless Pope, one
ready to sacrifice life in this noble work. Gregory VII. had been
the sorrowing witness of these iniquitous proceedings; he deplored
and wept over these unholy barterings done in the sacred name of
religion. Parley he would not; appease he dare not. He must rise
with superb daring, and, animated by faith and love for God, must
control the destructive whirl of these troublous times; he must
rise and rule this lawless storm and teach royalty that above there
commands One more powerful and just than earthly empire, the
Omnipotent God. Look at that brave old warrior of the Cross —
have you ever witnessed such intensity of will, such magical, hot,
passionate love of principle, love of the Church, love of God?
Then comes the darkest and most diabolic plot of all Henry's
atrocity and injustice — his open and naked attempt to enslave the
Saxon nation. What a mockery of empire was this! What cold-
blooded perfidy to his plighted troth I Vanquished and weltering
in the blood of her brave warriors, Saxony chafed vainly against
the bars of Henry's prison. She was robbed of the sacred heirloom
of her nationhood, her life-blood surely ebbed away, her beautiful
form was most vilely mutilated, her soul was rent asunder; the
wail of this poor, curse-stricken people appealed to the charity, to
the deep, heart-come feelings of humanity. Could Gregory, who
was contending for the independence of the Holy See, and whose
soul revolted at tyranny and oppression, look quietly at the unjust
430 THE GLOBE.
effrontery of the German Caesar? As from his Eoman watch-tower
he descried the ravages of Henry IV., instinctively his sympathies
became Saxon, and his resolves burning weapons. Listen to him
as he thunders forth the eloquence of reason and equity, as he
dooms to the curse of excommunication the arrogant and blinded
giant of the North. His Non Possumus strikes Germany with ter-
ror, it proves of little avail to the hard heart of Henry; but the
secret counselling of the German princes — the electors of the Holy
Eoman Empire — their restless situation, governed by an ostracised
member of the Church bode no favor for him who has invoked
the rage of religion upon their heads. " We cannot sacrifice the law
of God for personal considerations, nor turn aside from the patli
of justice to keep the favor of men " — this is the Papal fiat com-
ing from a Pontiff who was never known to temporize where justice
was concerned, and this fiat lays the comer-stone of our modern
civilization, by dealing the death-blow to the worst phase of the
old Byzantism.
History speaks to us of Henry's humiliation at Canossa, and tells
how the German princes gave him a year of grace to be reconciled
to the Church which he had sworn to defend; and it relates how,
crazed with fear of losing his crown, he stole away to cast himself
at Gregory's feet and beg for forgiveness for his crimes. For three
days (not for three successive days and nights, as prejudiced writers
state) the royal penitent appeared in sackcloth and ashes, and
Gregory listened reluctantly to him, for his stern inflexibility bends
not even before royal penitence. A grand spectacle, indeed, is that
of Canossa. He who for years had given heart and soul to crush
the heaving bosom of liberty, who strove in vain to undermine the
Papacy, whose imperial despotism had created and sent forth on
Saxony a new Scythian tide of destruction and tyranny, bends low
beneath the powerful arm of religion, subdued, an eternal lesson
to overbearing royalty.
But what a howl of hate has Gregor/s action toward Henry at
Canossa evoked from the historic jugglers of our days. How char-
acteristic their strictures. How indignant their protests. It would
be nigh impossible to measure the censure and reprehension that
have been showered on Gregory's memory for permitting this un-
dignified humiliation of Henry IV. How significant is this protest
against Gregory's pride, " this heinous barbarism against the honor
of royalty! " What a convincing proof it is of Hildebrand's arbitrari-
r
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII. 431
ness! Yet we cannot see any barbarism nor any unnecessity in this
punishment. A king falling under the ban of ecclesiastical cen-
sure merits no worthier treatment than does the poorest peasant in
a like condition. If both are equally guilty, both deserve equal
punishment. Justly considered, no invidious distinction could be
made.
Gregory VII. knew only too well that Henry IV. was not sin-
cere in his repentance, for it is so evident the German Cajsar was
terrified at losing his throne, that self-interest and not sorrow for
his sins brought him to Canossa. What a sorry repentance is that
which lasts for only fifteen days, yet it is a historical fact that scarce
fifteen days had elapsed and Henry was up in arms against the Pope.
Let adversaries characterize Gregory's conduct as odious, they can-
not gainsay the purity of his intentions, for his sole desire, his
principal effort was not to degrade, but to correct the wayward
ruler, as his letter to the convention at Tribur plainly shows. The
spectacle at Canossa was a humiliation, but it was also a vindica-
tion. Brute force was quelled by spiritual strength, and craven
royalty convicted of its horrible excesses. When wrong cannot be
righted other than by severity, fiat justitia mat ccelum. There is
no more beautiful sight, none more attractive to the intellectual
sense than this vindication of justice at Canossa. The spiritual
element is the ruler in it, it is that which subdues the arm of op-
pression, which overcomes an effeminate tyrant who all the while
retains his material strength.
Concerning the quick and daring blow struck at corrupt royalty
by Gregory VII. in his deposition of Henry IV., it is astonishing
what bitter emotions this act has evoked from men who claim to
be ardent lovers of liberty and justice. How much vituperation,
how much unjust censure have been visited for it on Gregory's
memory! It would be a matter of congratulation if we could be
assured that these "just and indispensable'' criticisms were the
outcome of sincerity and impartiality. We would like, if we could,
to believe that much of the sectarian spirit — that summary way
of accusing, condemning, and affixing to the pillory all luckless
men who do not suit modern ideas of heroism — was not defamatory
diversion with noble and true characters, literary tarring-and-
feathering of glorious names — the worst and most debasing of all
tyrannies! Let justice be not blinded; let us treat the memory
of St. Gregory VII. as we would that of Gustavus Adolphus or of
432 THE GLOBE.
Washington, the deposer of a British king, and then there will be
no harrowing doubt as to the justness of the verdict. The good
genius of history, if not tormented and silenced by the tyranny
of sectarianism and prejudice, will ever award triumphant justice
to the great " Hercules of the Middle Ages," who, turned aside by
no human respect, daunted by no enemy, fought for liberty. Church,
and faith.
Moralists say that reverence is slow of growth, that no artificial
heat of popularity quickens it, and the saying is not unreasonable.
The day has come when justice is meted out to Hildebrand's mem-
ory, and his many admirers have been the witnesses of his vindica-
tion. Literary and religious bigots, whose little world of action
neutralizes the good of history, are fast disappearing. Thanks to
the liberal spirit of the times, the age of bigotry is surely dying
away. In the laurel wreaths of victory which prejudiced writers
supposed that they plucked from fair brows, there was hidden the
deadly night-shade. And it has done well its work of annihila-
tion. To-day, under better auspices, men can sit down and WTite
history, free from the curse of prejudice. The vindication of St.
Gregory VII. came at last, in this nineteenth century, from that
sam.e country whose former ruler was Hildebrand's avowed enemy.
Strange, is it not, that a noble German spirit should attune his harp
in Babel's halls in celebration of this Pontiff-hero? A daring deed
was Voight's — a deed meritorious of everlasting praise, to lay be-
neath the citadel of sectarian hate the destructive mine of history.
Let us now glance at some of the causes which have helped to
heap obloquy on Gregory's memory. We have seen that from
the day when the young monk of Cluny saw a German prelate pass-
ing by his monastic home on his way to take possession of the
Apostolic chair awarded him by the simple will of an emperor, he
had resolved to defend the Church, even though martyrdom were
to seal his efforts. The arrogance of a despot he could not brook.
Unwarranted infringements he could not stand. To view passively
and without an effort to rectify the abuse, ecclesiastical benefices
dealt out as military commissions, to be compelled to remain a re-
sistless observer of the enslavement of the Church's nobility, this
was indeed intolerable. Was there no security for the institutions
of religion — no bulwark or trench to protect them? Must the
ship of Church and state be ever placed at the mercy of this blind
Polyphemus of the North? There was an unmastered power to
r
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII. 433
check this passionate tide — it was the power of the Holy See. In
that sublime moment in the history of the world, when the fate
of posterity lay wavering in the balanc'e of human destiny, Gregory
proved no craven. Steadfast and true to his duty he met, with the
all-embracing energy of his mind, this emergency on which de-
pended the future of Christendom. A thought, a word, an act de-
termined the peace of the world; a judgment realized the hopes of
universal observers, though it drove Gregory into exile, to die lov-
ing justice and hating iniquity. Why censure Gregory for placing
his interdiction on rebellious royalty, when, guided alone by its
mastery of brute force, it strove by might and main to sweep away
religion and society? Why decry this heroic struggle for liberty?
Even were we to suppose for quiet's sake that Hildebrand acted
immoderately in launching the thunders of the spiritual power
against a German despot, still there was reason, there was philos-
ophy in his immoderation.
Henry enjoyed and participated in the rights of royalty and re-
fused to fulfil its duties. He scorned to proffer his service to the
Church, yet he would not allow her liberty of action. He had
sworn to do her justice, just as he had sworn to promote the wel-
fare of his country. This oath was the foundation-stone of his
power. Did he fulfil his compact? Was his plighted troth to relig-
ion unbroken? His simoniacal proceedings, his despotic sover-
eignty had dissolved the bond which linked his subjects to the im-
perial throne. Obedience could not be demanded where protection
was denied. It required no arbitrary stroke of a Pontiff to depose
him. His violation of his contract, in virtue of which he mounted
to the summit of royalty, was the knell of his despotism. Gregory
declared Henry incapable of ruling; by his tyrannical acts he had
lost his right to the throne. And though Henry's partisans ap-
pealed to the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and branded
Gregory's action as contrary to all law, divine and human, they,
in their blind zeal, refused to distinguish between the legitimate
use and the arbitrary abuse of authority. For, even admitting
divine right in its amplest extension, a prince, once stooping to
tyranny, forfeits both power and authority. Gregory's sentence
then was not an act of deposition, but a simple suspension of the
exercise of kingly authority, the consequence also of excommuni-
cation. His right to pronounce this sentence has been questioned,
but with little reason. If the position of the emperor be only con-
voL. VII.— 29.
434 THE GLOBE.
sidered, there can be no doubt of the validity of Gregor/s judg-
ment. Henry IV. was, avowedly at least, a member of the Church.
By his corrupt practices and open violations of her laws he sub-
jected himself to the penalty of ecclesiastical censure. Warned
repeatedly to cease from his iniquitous and destructive infringe-
ments on religious liberty, he returned contempt for charitable
counsel, and at length was visited with the just and salutary pun-
ishment of excommunication. Did not Gregory possess the right
to fulminate that thunderbolt? As a consequence of this censure,
all Henry's subjects were freed from the obligations entailed by
their oath of allegiance; for, according to the political ethics of the
middle ages, as soon as rulers rebelled against the Church, and were
placed under the ban of canonical censure, from that moment loy-
alty ceased.
This is what might be called the ecclesiastical view of this ques-
tion, and no one who knows anything whatever concerning the
coercive power of the Church and the relations intervening be-
tween Pope and subject can fail to see the supremacy which St.
Gregory's office held over even Henry's dignity. There are divines
who teach that a Pope can, by virtue of his authority as successor
of St. Peter and invested in him by the divine constitution of the
Papacy, depose princes under certain circumstances. This, how-
ever, is a purely scholastic question, and needs no comment here.
It matters little whether this prerogative be inherent in the spir-
itual order or not. Gregory's action is defensible without assum-
ing such high ground. According to the jus publicum of mediseval
times, the Koman Pontiff was recognized as Supreme Judge of the
Christian world, not only in matters purely spiritual, but also in
gravest political ones. This was a concession on the part of both
princes and peoples, so that when international or national disputes
could not be settled among belligerent parties, both admitted in
the Pope's person the Arbitrator of their differences. The ancient
dictum was true here: JRoma locuta est, causa finita est. This was
also a privilege awarded to the Papal office after the downfall of
the Bas-Empire, and it resulted from the prominent part which
the Roman Pontiffs took in forming the new Christian Empire of
the West. The Pope could, in virtue of this chief Moderatorship,
interfere in any national outbreak, and his authority far prepon-
derated the civil arm. Henry's father had admitted this power
when he wished to oppose the rising pretensions of the King of
HILDEBRAND THE GREAT— POPE GREGORY VII. 435
Castille to the title of Emperor. To conclude, then: Gregory's
interference in the national affairs of Germany was grounded first
on a political claim growing out of the circumstances which accom-
panied the revival of the Western Empire, and, secondly, on the
general opinion of his times respecting the subordination of the
temporal to the spiritual power in critical junctures. So that,
viewed alone from the jurisprudence of those turbulent days, Greg-
ory possessed the indefeasible title to coerce Henry.
Furthermore, when the Saxons, tyrannized over by the German
Caesar, appealed to the Pope for protection, they claimed that Henry
had violated his coronation oath, and that the Eoman Pontiff, in
virtue of his authority over the empire, should appoint a worthier
ruler. Henry, on the contrary, appealed to Gregory to use his
authority over the Saxons; thus was Gregory constituted Arbitrator
between the contestants.
Again, when affairs assumed a more momentous aspect, and Ger-
many, aroused from her lethargy by the anomalous position of her
emperor — an ostracised member of the Church — met in solemn
convention at Tribur to concert measures for future guidance, the
German princes, with the emperor's consent, invited Gregory to
adjudicate the case in the following year. Gregory accepted the
invitation, and was thus constituted judge over this national as-
sembly, in whose presence the criminal Henry promised to appear.
Had not Henry's cowardly spirit refused to permit Gregory to
meet the German lords, had he not barred the way to Gregory's
approach, the world would have witnessed the right of Papal juris-
diction vindicated over effete and corrupt royalty. Who is he that
views these iron days, when, as the learned Herder says, " the barque
of the Church was freighted with the destiny of mankind," and
does not sympathize with Gregory's efforts to lift humanity and
religion to a high estate? As Europe lay trembling before the
autocracy of tyrants, her soil about to become the theatre of in-
terminable conflict, Hildebrand determined her future. He saved
her from the darkness of barbarism, from the bondage of despotism.
Does not his beneficence deserve something other than abuse and
contumely? Do not his holy aspirations merit a generous and re-
sponsive sympathy? We who are not strangers to misfortune and
wrong in these so-called days of advanced civilization, when we see
our own Holy Father a prisoner at the will of a robber-king, may
well listen to the voices which proclaim the undying fame and
436 THE QLOBE.
glory of St. Gregory VII. If history did not honor his memory,
his vigorous battle for justice and right, she would belie her grand
purposes. Tennyson seems to have had him in mind when he
wrote:
" Divinely gifted man,
Whose life in low estate began.
And on a simple village green;
Who breaks his birth's invidious bar,
And grasps the skirts of happy chance.
And breasts the blow of circumstance,
And grapples with his evil star;
Who makes by force his merits known.
And lives to clutch his golden keys.
To mould a mighty State's decrees,
And shape the whisper of the throne.
And moving up from high to higher.
Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope
The pillar of a people's hope,
The center of a world's desire."
BrooMyn, N. Y. Rev. Michael P. Heffebnan.
LOVE AS A FACTOR OF DEVELOPMENT.
Has anyone ever told us that love is but the groping of the soul
for God and can never be satisfied with anything short of Him?
Well, that is the whole truth of it, whether it has ever been said
or sung. There is no human being great or good enough to meet
the requirements of love, and the sooner the world recognizes this
the sooner it will give that " greatest thing on earth " its rightful
place among the developmental forces of being and end the mad
search for its fulfilment here, which has done more, perhaps, than
any other mistake of time to wreck the happiness of humanity.
Heaven knows why the delusion is upon us; but no sooner is
any mortal touched by the divine spark of love than he begins to
paint the object of it, however faulty, in the colors of an angel, and
prepare for himself the hell of fallen angels, when those colors are
(inevitably) withdrawn.
LOVE AS A FACTOR OF DEVELOPMENT. 4iJ7
And all the great artists and writers of the world have recognized
this delusion of love, and spent themselves in depicting, with Par-
rhasian skill and minuteness, the long-drawn agonies in which the
victims of it go to their hells. Yet few of them pause to note the
meaning of love's pains, though when they do they reach the
Dantean heights of literature and show us the white hand of
Beatrice pointing, past herself, to the heaven encircling " Eose of
the Blessed," in whose glowing heart of infinite love, the longing,
loving soul, alone finds perfect fulness and content.
It is no small secret of the power, as well as pathos, of those
masterly tales of George Eliot that they everywhere recognize the
hopelessness of love's high dreams and ideals and the pitiful dis-
enchantments of the great and noble-minded Romolas, who build
their life hopes upon them. But, when that young girl-author, in
the heart of Africa, makes her love-WTccked heroine search the mir-
rored depths of her poor dying eyes for some dim promise of a life
that shall yet bring her the ideal being her proud soul can worship,
she goes a step higher, and, by the seerest power of true genius, is
able to fling the torch of life and love past the black chasm of
earth's failures and despair, where it was the sad province of George
Eliot always to bury it.
Yet only occasionally does Olive Schreiner thus work out the
problem of love to its immortal issue, for in the main the heavy pall
of destiny, the black wall of the unknown surround her, too, every-
where. Perhaps more than any mortal who ever lived or wrote.
Browning grasped the true meaning of love and recognized its place
as a force or factor in the evolution of the soul. Yet even he ap-
pears to fall short at times of its higher bearings. In the familiar
little poem, " Cristina," he tells us, strongly enough,
" Ages past the soul existed,
Here an age, 'tis resting merely,
While the true end, sole and single,
It stops here for, is this love, nay,
With some other soul to mingle."
But what are we to do with the subsequent lines, " Else it loses,
what it lived for, and eternally must lose it," when all the facts
of life and history clearly show that the towering majority of man-
kind never find the perfectly attuned souls with which " to mingle."
If to miss love's fulness here is to miss it forever, what a total
438 THE OLOBE.
failure, a waste force, love must be in the whole economy of being.
Bather must we not believe that these imperfect loves of earth,
these souls that make us dream so fondly, that we have found love's
ideals, are but the wayside shrines, where, as Browning elsewhere
better expresses it, " God stooping shows us in the dark enough
o' Himself to rise by/' Certainly it is only in this sense that he
can truly say that, " Life with all it yields of joy or woe, and hope
and fear, is just our chance o' the prize of learning love," for unless
it leads us on to something better than it gives us here it ofttimes
is not worth the learning.
Accepted, however, as a force or factor in man's progress toward
the highest, it seems to fit exactly in its character and bearing to
what might be expected of it; and not the least of all in this re-
spect is its insatiable demand for that " highest." It is really the
hope of the race, that no sooner does love touch a human life than
at once, however dark and cramped and sin-stained that life may
be, the white wings of purity and truth begin to flutter within it
and demand a place of holiness and light to rest in.
The blackest criminal seeks goodness and honor in the woman
he loves, and swears to her, however falsely, to cultivate all the
golden virtues. And so, everywhere, the souls that love awakens
begin at once that search for holiness which, if not perverted in
its course, must lead them, whether together or apart, straight to
the one seat and center of true holiness in the bosom of the Divine.
" Of all human passions," says Professor Alexander in his essays
on Browning, "none so reaches out toward the Infinite as love.
It both symbolizes and arouses that thirst for the Infinite which
is the primary need of humanity; and Browning, well understand-
ing this, represents the perfection of body and soul, with which
the lover's imagination endows the loved one, not as an unreal halo,
but as that deeper insight of love which penetrates the veil of time
and matter and sees the original type which the soul dimly shadows
forth amidst the imperfections of the present order of things."
If only some Plato or Browning could go a step farther and con-
vince man that that " original type " of loveliness and perfection
for which he begins to cry out so loudly at the first touch of love,
is not to be found in a world of finite and imperfect beings, he
might perhaps let go some of his ruinous mistakes in tho matter
and take that wondrous love-dream which the gods allow liim as
the celestial pledge of his higher destiny and bo willing to climb
r
TOUCHES OF JSATURE. 439
more patiently those " great altar stairs which slope through dark-
ness up to God." The hopelessness of realizing his ideals here
would no longer kill his faith in love, nor lead him into that other,
yet more deadly sin against all life and progress, the sin of letting
love decline upon poor, unworthy objects, and learning to content
himself with imperfections. Of all the mistakes of love this last
is indeed the most common and the most fatal, for the fulness of
life depends still upon the fulness of love; and the woman who
can be content to sit, as in the story, at the gate of heaven, waiting
for the husband with " creaking boots and railroad-novel " capaci-
ties, may be left to sit there waiting for or with him forever.
Certainly the soul can rise no higher than its ideals, and if a
poor and narrow love can meet those ideals the world of the beyond
is lost to it.
The hope of all true life and development lies, then, in preserving
that " Thirst for the Infinite," that " Cry for the highest," which
love awakens, unstifled; and perhaps the truest secret of thus pre-
serving it was given by the angel of the Apocalypse to the. rapt
dreamer, John, when he arrested his human desire to fall down
and worship him, with the swift warning, " See thou do it not; for
I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren the Prophets; wor-
ship God."
Chicago, III. Ikene A. Safford.
TOUCHES OF NATURE.
WHY MOVE ALONE?
Of fairest creatures we desire increase;
And should it be that in the years to come —
Wherein the reapers sing their harvest home —
The dove of heaven's perpetual peace.
Ere yet the pulses of thy youth shall cease
To beat in unison with love — unknown.
Might flit across thy dreams — why move alone
Adown the endless years in love's decease?
Why not embrace the hour of love and rise,
In youth — immortal as thine own to-day —
440 THE GLOBE,
Into the ever deathless, cloudless skies
Of love's own stainless, joyous, perfect way: —
Eepeat thyself along time's shoreless sea,
And live, through love, to love's eternity?
MY BETTEK ANGEL.
Thou art my better angel, night and day
All fragrant flowers breathe thy sacred flame.
And little song-birds chirp thy blessed name;
Apocalyptic gleams of thee still stray
Along life's dreary spaces, light my way,
As once thy ever radiant presence came,
"With gentle touch across my dawning fame.
Until death's darkness vanished quite away.
The clouds of heaven, spaces 'mong the trees,
Suggest thy lovely form; and near and far,
Along the curved wave, the whispering breeze.
Some thought of thee, as of love's morning star.
Aye comes to me — and hence I call thee mine,
0 Love ineffable! nameless — divine!
THE DEW-ENAMOURED SOD.
I think that thou wast sent to me of God,
To soothe the anguish of my keenest pain,
And make earth's desert places bloom again.
As flowers cheer the dew-enamoured sod;
Turning the wrath of storm's avenging rod
Into a rainbow — hued and starry plain
Of fragrant beauty, crystalled with the rain;
And all life sacred is where thou hast trod.
0 leave me not, my love! nor night nor day.
Unfold thine arms from my free yielding soul;
Cease not thy blessed, fascinating sway,
But as the waves still ceaselessly do roll,
Be thou my guide, my ever constant ray,
As of the star that marks the northern pole.
TOUCHES OF NATURE. 441
GOD'S SYMPHONY.
I cannot think that thou wilt ever die,
0 angel of the land of peace! To me
Thou art the light that never was on sea
Or land, that liveth in the lover's sigh.
In every cloud and song that passeth by.
In God's immortal, mighty symphony.
His loved and loving, lulling melody
Of starry music in the midnight sky.
And still, in every varied mood of mind,
Thou comest, sun-clothed, as in days of old;
Where least I seek thee, there I'm sure to find
Thee; and as life's deep mysteries unfold.
And all its petty strifes are left behind.
Thy blessed love shines clear as burnished gold.
IMMOETAL YOUTH.
Why should not life, so beautiful in thee.
Find echo in the music of the spheres —
The sweet accord of thy diviner years
Eepeat itself along life's shoreless sea?
Say that thou art God's chaste virginity
In human form — let all thy useless fears.
Thy dreams of sorrow, thine unf alien tears.
Be scattered, and thus meet life's destiny.
We know not if the days, the years, may glow
In all the future, endless, tides divine.
With love so stainless as the deathless flow
Of snow-like glory in thy heart and mine.
Then let the sun-rays of eternal truth
Repeat in splendor our immortal youth.
MY LOVE.
Could I but name the sunlight in her hair;
The still more radiant glow upon her face.
And all the majesty of matchless grace
That beamed forth from this maiden, pure and fair
442 THE GLOBE.
As daffodils that come ere swallows dare
And take the winds of March with beauty — trace
The quiver on her crimson lips, or pace
The far labyrinth of her soul's one care.
I would Fay a ray from yon sun astray
Had taken human form, of angel mould.
Softly beautiful, as the dawn of day.
Before the world was faded, gray and old.
And there, beside the sea, 0 Queen of May!
Had solved the dream that never may be told.
WHITE AND STRONG.
I do not dream and will not dream again
That thou, 0 love, wilt ever come to me.
I see thee in the flowers, the stars, the sea;
And I have seen thee in the eyes of pain;
The eyes of joy that scarcely could refrain
Their utterance, and, in bitter agony.
My rapt and intense soul hath flown to thee
On shores no mariner may ever gain.
But ever baffled, by some subtle wrong,
I see thee, flying the heavenly height,
Through each sun-born day and each darkest night,
Yet love thee and weave thee into my song: —
I have given thee my youth, my clearest sight.
In my passing soul thou art white and strong.
THE VOICELESS SEA.
Most passionately I ever love thee,
Beyond all dreams of youth or riper years;
And though nor words of mine, nor yet my tears
May reach or move thee, still the voiceless sea
Shall bear to thee these burning words from me,
And in far distant ages when thy fears
Have vanished, and we meet among our peers,
Angelic songs shall bind our destiny.
TOUCHES OF NATURE. 443
Till then I seek thee not, though day and night
I wreathe thy blessed name with ceaseless song,
And, with the multitudinous, deep might
Of all creation, hate the burning wrong
That drove thee from me, when the sea, the sun.
The flowers, and angels crowned our lives as one.
IN ALL THE YEARS.
I do not dream that there will ever be.
In all the years that may perchance remain
For me upon this earth, to seek and gain
The hidden treasure of the soul's own sea
Of joy and love and mirth and ecstasy —
One day or hour in which I shall again
Ascend the heavens of that sweet refrain
Of love immortal, thou didst sing to me.
The world is just as full of flowers; hope
Springs immortal with each new dawning day;
In truth my own soul's dreary horoscope
Has widened vastly on its final way.
But thou art gone, and all the radiant air
Is dulled with longing and with love's despair.
RIGHTEOUS WRATH.
There is no wrath like righteous wrath, so-called;
It lays its schemes in darkness; plots as free
With use of hellish tools of hate, appalled
At nothing that, perchance, its envies see
As some faint semblance of excuse for gall
As bitter as the hemlock — that famed tree
From which our crosses and our poisons fall
Upon the race, to cheat God's destiny.
Time out of mind have priests and high priests found
This sword, all venom-tipped, their ready knife
To slay the victims of their spleen, when bound;
'Twas this sharp spike tliat pierced His hands, whose life
Had been as stainless as a child's — this hound
That barked its " Crucify Him," dug His mound.
444 THE GLOBE.
THE AUTUMN OF OUE WORLD.
At last the autumn of our world hath come,
And human beings are falling fast, like leaves
All shaken with the wind, or, broken sheaves,
Fast driven by swept hurricanes to some
Far distant, foreign shore and harvest home
Unknown to mortal man that laughs or grieves,
Or leaf that blushes with sweet life that cleaves
Unto each heart and thing, save death's dark loam.
Nay, nay, it is not ripeness, but decay
That this old reaper gathers to his breast.
So covetous for broken hearts and sighs;
And not one single, shining, beauteous ray
Of light or hope shall enter this last nest
Of sin arid death, save love, that never dies.
A CHRISTMAS SONG.
Of all the tides that sweep upon the shore
Of this fair world; of all the songs that Time
Has woven from the master-souls sublime
That we call poets, ever more and more.
In matchless grandeur, and in sweetness, pour
The crested waves of that dear angel chime
Now echoed on the breeze of every clime,
And starred with glory to the very door
Of heaven's own radiant, open portals, far
Above the reach of our divinest dreams
Of music, and with power itself divine —
For unto us a Child is born — a Star,
Whose steady and whose tender, radiant gleams
Of love undying, through all worlds shall shine.
William Henry Thorne.
r
SOME SPANISH AND CUBAN POETS. 446
SOME SPANISH AND CUBAN POETS.
The literature of a people reflects their national character and
aspirations, while poets especially are the most eloquent in protray-
ing the beauties of their native land. Wordsworth sings to us of
the beautiful meadows and green fields of " Merry England; " Ten-
nyson of its babbling brooks, while the great English master holds
the keynote of human nature, for no one so well understands the
workings of man's passions as the immortal Shakespeare; no one
so well portrays the good and evil in man's nature.
Spanish literature is not so well known to American readers as
French, German, and Russian, although it contains priceless treas-
ures worthy of study. In the literary firmament Cervantes, Lope
de Vega, Quevedo, and Calderon de la Barca are brilliant planets
which shed their light through the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries; while at the present time Nunez de Arce, Echegaray,
Balart, and Campoamor appear in the starry constellation. Espron-
ceda, Zorrilla, and Martinez de la Rosa belong to an earlier period
of the present century. Espronceda's passionate strains resemble
Byron's in their skeptical veins, and Zorrilla's verses are romantic,
alive with life and color and Oriental imagery as he sings of East-
em beauties.
Nunez de Arce's strains are heroic and soul-stirring; while Eche-
garay's dramas and tragedies are thrilling with their keen portrayal
of human life and passion.
Balart's verses are sad and tender, mirroring his passionate de-
votion to his wife's memory; while Campoamor's are sweet at times
as well as beautiful, although anon they reveal a tinge of cynicism,
like the serpent's trail which marred the joys of Eden.
Castelar's writings are poetic prose; in other words, the poetry of
prose, with their well-rounded periods and lofty flights of fancy.
Salvador Rueda, one of the youngest Spanish poets, has mastered
the secrets of nature, as he sings of the charms of his native Anda-
lusia, reproducing in rhythmic verse the humming of bees, the
fragrance of sweet flowers, and the carolling of birds in that sunny
land.
In Spain, the land of the olive and pomegranate — the most ro-
mantic country in the world, where the flood of modern progress
446 THE GLOBE.
and innovation have not yet obliterated ancient landmarks as in
other lands; where olden time manners and customs still hold sway
and aristocratic prejudices prevail, a woman has come to the front,
whose genius is universally acknowledged throughout Europe.
Emilia Pardo Bazan, called the George Eliot of Spain by virtue of
her penetrating views and her masterly style. Among contem-
porary writers, Emilia Serrano, Baroness Wilson, is especially dis-
tinguished, being the author of a well-written " General " history
of America in twenty volumes. This is her greatest work; but she
has also published several historical novels and poems, as well as
travels.
A woman of liberal views, during her sojourn in America the
Baroness has imbibed a still greater admiration and love for liberty;
and although her native land holds the first place in her heart,
America is her adopted home.
During Emilia Serrano's travels in Spanish America she was re-
ceived as an official guest by the South American Eepublics, while
every means was placed at her command to enable her to pursue
her historical researches.
Carolina Valencia is one of the modern poets who has won recog-
nition from the Spanish Academy, which never recognizes any-
thing short of genius, and her poems were published by that re-
spectable body a few years ago.
Blanca de los Eios's cantos, Jaime el Romancero, carry the reader
back to the age of chivalry, bringing before him the paladins of
olden times as they rode to the wars, flaunting their lady love's
colors before them.
Cuban literature springs from the parent stock, but it reveals
a distinct individuality of its own, as a transplanted tree develops
a different growth in a richer soil; or as a child who does not re-
semble his father, although the same blood flows in his veins. A
richer soil, a warmer clime, a closer communion with nature in the
exuberance of her tropical charms, and a southern languor have
produced a different style peculiar to itself, unlike the bold, vigor-
ous, and romantic strains of Spanish bards.
When Cuba was first discovered by Columbus in 1492, and finally
settled by the Spaniards in 1511, they learned that the aborigines,
a mild, effeminate race, were fond of composing verses, which they
called areitos. The one who most distinguished herself in the
neighboring island of Hispaniola, as Santo Domingo was then called,
SOME SPANISH AND CUBAN POETS. 447
was Princess Anacoana, immortalized in Washington Irving's " Life
of Columbus."
The onward course of civilization swept away in its relentless
march the native owners of the soil in both North and South Amer-
ica, as well as the Antilles; more rapidly in Cuba than anywhere else,
for as early as 1553 the aborigines were entirely exterminated in
that fair land so favored by nature with her most exuberant charms.
In no other quarter of the globe are the rays of the sun so dazzling,
the sunshine so golden, moonlight so radiant, vegetation so exuber-
ant, and flowers so fragrant as in the Pearl of the Antilles, Garden
of the "World, or the Modern Eden, as Cuba is called. When clouds
do come, and showers occur, they are like the outburst of a passionate
nature. The rain descends with tropical force, in torrents resem-
bling misty, white sheets, soaking into the earth, which exhales a
pungent, aromatic odor. The flashes of lightning are blinding, the
peals of thunder deafening, resembling the boom of cannon or roar
of artillery. While the tempest lasts it is on a grand and sublime
scale. It subsides as suddenly as it came, and the sun reappears,
while nature resumes her sunny aspect, like a maiden smiling
through her tears, as some Cubans say, when the sun shines while
the rain is still falling.
Cuba has a charm of her own which casts a powerful spell over
her children, inspiring a fervent love of country in their breast.
In early colonial days freedom of press was withheld from the
Island of Cuba; but in spite of this drawback several Cuban poets
appeared whose genius raised them above their lowly surroundings.
One of these, a poor farmer, Jose Suri, was a native of Santa Clara.
He was born in 1696. Suri studied medicine, and practiced with-
out a diploma. When called to account he disarmed his judges by
his clever defence in verse, so they immediately granted him a
diploma.
Another poet of considerable repute, Manuel Hodriguez, was a
carpenter. He submitted a memorial to Carlos III., who replied
by appointing him librarian at Santa Fe de Bogota.
Eafaela Vargas, the first Cuban woman poet of whom there is
any record, published some verses in 1807.
Finally freedom of press was granted in 1811, and this gave a
new impetus to letters, so several journals were started.
Juana Pastor, a colored woman, wrote some creditable verses in
1815.
448 THE GLOBE,
The first literary review in Santiago de Cuba was started by
Manuel Perez at the beginning of this century.
One of the most noted poets was Manuel Zequiera, a native of
Havana, of Spanish parentage. Zequiera was colonel in the Span-
ish army. His epic odes are his best productions.
Manuel Justo de Rubalcava was born in Santiago de Cuba. He
also served in the Spanish army, but retired to private life to devote
himself to a literary pursuit. Rubalcava's pastoral sonnets are
exquisite.
We now come to the greatest luminary of Cuban literature, Jose
Maria de Heredia, familiar to American readers as the author of
the " Ode to Niagara." Heredia was born in Santiago de Cuba
in 1805, where his parents, people of means, had settled after the
cession of Santo Domingo to France in 1795. Heredia was a pre-
cocious child, and wrote verses when only ten years old. He
studied law and removed to Matanzas in 1823. Shortly after
political disturbances arose, and as Heredia cherished a love of in-
dependence and freedom, he was obliged to seek refuge in the
United States, as the Spanish Government looked with jealous eyes
on all such aspirations. While in New York Heredia brought out
a volume of poems. Soon afterward he removed to the City of
Mexico, and his tragedy " Sila " was put on the stage with great
success.
Juan Valera, the Spanish critic, whose name is law in literary
matters, considers Heredia the most inspired Cuban poet. Heredia's
poetry is of a high order and full of lofty conceptions. He was a
man of fixed religious principles, as his " Ode to the Sun " reveals.
His poem " La Estrella de Venus " suggested to the Cubans the
adoption of the "Lone Star" as their emblem when they raised
the banner of revolt against Spanish dominion.
A poet whose verses give a graphic picture of the loves and rival-
ries of the sons of the soil in Cuba is Ramon Velez, a native of
Havana.
Domingo del Monte, another poet of considerable repute, was a
native of Venezuela, but Cuba was the home of his adoption. Do-
mingo del Monte's verses also treat of the loves and lives of hum-
ble country people.
Francisco Iturrondo sings of the charms of nature in his tropical
home, the Gem of the Caribbean Sea.
Jose Luis Alfonso, a native of Havana, succeeded to the title
r
SOME SPANISH AND CUBAN POETS. 449
of Marquis of Montelo. A man of remarkable talent; in his youth
he was a stanch republican, but afterward became a liberal mon-
archist, with political views more befitting a scion of the nobility.
The Marquis of Montelo was the author of a scheme to establish
home rule in Cuba, and advocated the desirability of drawing up
a treaty with England and France, forming thereby a triple alliance
with Spain, whereby the latter should agree to establish home rule
similar to that of Canada, and to abolish slavery in Spanish do-
minions, while England and France should promise to guard Cuba
from foreign invasion. It is needless to say that at that time, in
1851, his scheme found no favor with Spain. The Marquis was a
man of letters, and the wrongs of down-trodden Greece were a
fruitful theme for his pen.
Felipe Poey was one of the greatest scientists Cuba ever gave
birth to, and his fame spread throughout Spanish America as well
as Europe. His " Geography of the World " and '' Natural History
of Cuba" were his most important works. Poey^s poetry is full
of local color, and he delights to sing of the beauties of his tropical
home.
One of the greatest geniuses in Cuban literature, Gabriel de la
Concepcion Valdes, more commonly known as Placido, was of hum-
ble origin. He inherited his passionate nature from his mother,
a Spanish dancer, who abandoned him at his birth. His father was
a mulatto hair-dresser, and only our Creator, who reads all hearts
as an open book, can know the secret of Placido's birth, or how his
mother may have been wronged when she was willing to consign
her offspring to the foundling asylum. Later his father removed
him from this place and apprenticed him to a carpenter, but he
abandoned that trade to follow his father's calling. His early years
were full of bitter humiliation, which caused intense suffering to
his sensitive poetic nature.
Placido gave proof of genius at an early age, and soon found
powerful friends to aid him. His verses in the Poetic Garland,
dedicated to the Spanish poet, Martinez de la Eosa, attracted his
attention, so he wrote to Placido, offering him a helping hand if
he would come to Spain.
Placido's verses were in demand, and he eked out a scanty sub-
sistence by his pen. It is very singular, taking into account his
lowly station and environment, that Placidc vas the author of " The
Shade of Pelayo,'' an ode addressed to Quet Isabel II., and " The
VOL. VIT. —30.
450 THE OLOBE.
Shade of Padilla " to Queen Cristina, for both are full of bold con-
ception and longing for freedom and independence, written in soul-
stirring strains.
Placido's end was tragic. Arrested on the charge of treason, in
a threatened uprising of slaves in 1844, he was tried and sentenced
to death. His farewell to his mother, on the eve of execution, is
fraught with filial devotion; while the prayer which he recited on
his way to the place of execution is most sublime, thrilling the
reader with admiration. This alone would serve to engrave his
name in golden letters on the roll of fame.
Eamon de Palma was also a poet of considerable literary merit,
and his " Ode to the Cholera ^^ is considered as second only to
Heredia's " Ode to Niagara,'^ in spite of his grewsome theme.
Palma advocated the annexation of Cuba to the United States, and
at the time of the Narciso Lopez expedition Palma was thrown into
prison, and remained in durance vile for several months, but finally
he was released.
Matanzas gave birth to several poets, and Jose Jacinto Milanes
stands at the head of them all. His lyric poetry is sweet and
melodious. As Milanes was not blessed with worldly goods, at first
he was obliged to engage in a commercial pursuit, highly distaste-
ful to his high-strung organization. However, finally his genius
met recognition and his first volume of poems was very successful.
A settled melancholy clouded his mind the latter years of his life,
which new scenes and travel were unable to dissipate. He finally
passed away in 1863.
A colored poet, whose genius raised him above his lowly station,
was Juan Francisco Manzano. Born in slavery in 1806, his first
owner fostered his budding genius, of which he gave proof when
only a child. Later, he fell into the hands of another master, who
tortured his sensitive spirit and rendered life one slow martyrdom.
Forbidden to open his books, after the family was wrapt in slumber
at midnight Manzano would light a bit of tallow candle and pore
over his books. Finally several men of letters raised a subscription
to free the poor slave. Singular to relate, after obtaining his free-
dom, his poetic inspiration ceased, while it seemed as though slavery
were the muse which had inspired him. Perhaps he was like an
Eolian harp which must be stirred in order to elicit sweet strains.
A translation of Manzano's poems, called "Poems by a Negro
Slave in the Island of Cuba, Recently Freed," was published in
SOME SPANISH AND CUBAN POETS. 451
London in 1840 by Kichard Maddens, the translator. Manzano
wrote a tragedy called " Zafira."
He was his master's cook, and it is wonderful that a poor slave,
whose existence was passed among pots and kettles, catering to his
master's palate, could write such inspired verses of refined and ele-
vated thought.
Another celebrated poet was Federico Milanes, a brother of Jose
Jacinto ]\[ilanes, also a native of Matanzas, that beautiful city by
the sea, situated between two flowing rivers, the Yumuri and the
San Juan, which in their winding course traverse scenes of rare
tropical beauty, while the city of Matanzas lies between, near their
outlet to the sea. The Yumuri arises in the valley and flows be-
tween lofty cliffs, which were rent asunder by some mighty cata-
clysm of nature ag6s ago, and the verdant slopes from the Cumbre
spread above the river, while the lofty peak, the Pan of Matanzas,
towers above all, and is visible far out at sea. Federico Milane's
style was satirical, entirely different from his brother's sentimental
verses fraught with tenderness.
Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, a native of Puerto Principe,
is classed with Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, the Mexican song-
stress.
Gertrudis was born in 1814, and was a precocious child. When
only eight years old she wrote a fairy tale called " The Giant with
a Hundred Heads." Before her sixteenth year she had composed a
comedy and a drama. Gertrudis was educated in Paris, and after-
wards went to Seville, and finally took up her abode in Madrid in
1840, where she brought out a volume of poems, with a preface by
Juan Mcasio Gallego. Gertrudis was raised to the pinnacle of
fame on the advent of her drama, " Alfonso Munio." She carried
off both prizes at a literary contest celebrated in Madrid in 1844,
the first in her own name and the other over her pen name. On
this occasion she was crowned with a wreatli of laurel by Don Fran-
cisco de Bourbon, the Infante of Spain.
Gertrudis, by her marriage to Sefior Sabater, a deputy to the
Cortes, proved that, although a woman of masculine mind and
genius, she was not insensible to the tender passion. But before
the year had expired she donned a widow's weeds and sought relief
for her grief in a religious retreat.
In 1849 her biblical drama, " Saul," was successfully put on the
stage, followed by " Eicaredo." " Baltasar," another drama, was
452 THE GLOBE,
pronounced one of the greatest works of Spanish literature by the
eminent man of letters, Juan Valera.
Gertrudis married again in 1853, and her second husband was
a colonel in the Spanish army.
Gertrudis returned to her native land in 1859, after an absence
of twenty years, and was received with an enthusiastic ovation.
Death once more snatched away her loving companion, and this
blow bowed her spirit in the dust. To seek distraction from her
woes she traveled through the United States and then returned to
Spain. In 1873 she breathed her last in Madrid. Alas, for human
greatness and fame! Only a few faithful friends accompanied to
their last resting-place the remains of one of the greatest geniuses
in Spanish literature.
Eafael Mendive, the songster of the hearth, wrote verses of rare
beauty and tenderness. He was a native of Havana.
Isaac Carrillo was imprisoned by the Spanish authorities in Ha-
vana in 1869 for his patriotic verses and revolutionary views, but
Ije was finally released.
Jose Clemente Zenea was not so fortunate. Born in Bayamo,
the home of Carlos Manuel Cespedes also, Zenea was a poet of re-
markable genius, and soon engaged in advocating a scheme for
the annexation of Cuba to the United States, thereby incurring
the ill-will of the Spanish Government. He took part also in
one of Narciso Lopez's expeditions, and afterwards fled to the
United States. Shortly after the proclamation of independence in
1868, when Cespedes raised the banner of revolt against Spanish
dominion, Zenea started a revolutionary journal. He visited Ha-
vana, was seized and thrown into prison on the charge of treason.
During his captivity books and writing materials were withheld
from him, and he was kept in solitary confinement. But he man-
aged to indite a poem. with a bit of charcoal on a handkerchief,
which he gave to the officer in command. These verses are fraught
with patriotic fervor, and are carefully preserved by his friends.
Tried and sentenced to death in 1873, he was led to execution with-
in the dreary fortress La Cabana, staining with his blood the ground
which has been dyed with the life-blood of so many Cuban rebels
since.
A new school has sprung up during the past fif toon yonr?. and
there are many followers of the French impressioiiists .hikui^ the
younger generation. A tinge of skepticism characterizes most of
THE CORN AND THE VINE. 453
their verses, and their strains are more like the melancholy notes of
the nightingale than the joyous, gladsome carol of the lark.
Julian Casal, a young poet of rare genius, passed away a few
years ago. His poetry is full of rich Oriental imagery and color.
Two brothers, Federico and Carlos Urbach, are budding geniuses,
and they choose the same theme, each evolving new and distinct
beauties, while their verses are like the richly carved beads of a
rosary — alike and yet unlike.
New Yorlc. Maky Elizabeth Spkingeb.
THE CORN AND THE VINE.
THE LABOREK.
I am the toiler, I plant and cut down;
My field is well cared for, the ripe ears its crown.
Gaunt hunger I banish and famine I slay.
THE VINE-DRESSER.
I am the vine-dresser, training the vines,
I cultivate vineyards and set them in lines;
Humanity drinks of my goblet, to-day!
THE PRIEST.
I sow life eternal — I bid you God-speed!
I kindle love's fires! Your spirits I feed.
Good friends, hand in hand let us labor alway!
THE LABORER.
The bread thou bestowest, 0 Father, I need;
Where else should the soul find its heavenly food?
THE VINE-DRESSER.
The wine thou outpourest is precious, indeed!
The thirst that consumes us thou slakest with good.
THE PRIEST.
Of the corn and the vines, children, wisely take heed,
Without you, bare altars, dishonored, had stood.
454 THE GLOBE.
ALL THREE IN UNISON.
0 Lord, in our toil be Thy Love made complete!
Together we offer the bread and the wine;
May each have a share in Thy Sacrifice sweet,
United with Thee in Thy working divine!
From the French of A. de Segue, by C. D. Swan.
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL
Lay Sermons by an ex-Preacher. Text — I. Corinthians,
Chap. 13, Verse 8. — " Charity Never Faileth."
For many long years before the late Professor Drummond pub-
lished his little booklet on " The Greatest Thing in the World" I
had again and again insisted, in sermons and in serious conversa-
tions with my parishioners and friends, that this thirteenth chapter
of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians had never yet received
the ecclesiastical or popular attention it inherently deserved; and
that, as a matter of literary construction, as a matter of philosophical
statement, and as a matter of all-embracing, spiritual, and religious
dogma, it was, and would and must forever remain, the sublimest,
inspired or uninspired, utterance ever made by mortal man.
I do not pretend to assert, assume, or intimate that I am the
first discoverer of the greatness of this chapter of Holy Scripture.
On the contrary, I am satisfied that hundreds of scholars and saints
of all ages of the Church have felt and comprehended its meaning,
its magnitude, and its glory. In truth it is clear to me that the
sweetest and holiest lives that have ever blessed and honored the
Christian religion have attained to their sweetness and holiness
solely in obedience to the spirit and teachings of this wonderful
utterance of the inspired human soul.
I do assert, however, that it was by and through my own indc-
pendent studies of the Scriptures, and by and throuiili ilu' inter-
pretations of divine grace applied to my own experiences of life,
and not through the aid of the words or lives of any calendared or
un calendared saints or scholars in or out of the Church that the
nameless sublimities of the teachings of this beautiful portion of
Scripture gradually dawned upon and took absolute possession of
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 455
my own mind and life. In a word, it was a new birth to me out of
the divine womb of Time. And I still more plainly assert that, in
my judgment, preachers, priests, and so-called Christian writers
everywhere would be infinitely better employed were they to dwell
less upon the incomprehensible mysteries of our religion and less up-
on the special glories of certain saints and certain exclusive dogmas
of the Church, and try to comprehend a little more clearly and to
proclaim more constantly this all-embracing, cosmopolitan, uni-
versal, totally uplifting, soul-beautifying, glorifying, never-failing,
and all-conquering virtue of Christian charity — as applied to all
dogma, to all politics, to all philosophy, and to every most exalted
and most humble individual human life. I offer it as my opinion
also that, while the late Professor Drummond said many pretty
and pathetic things in the little booklet referred to, as in other of
his writings, he very poorly and very imperfectly comprehended
the complete and infinite meanings and glories to be found in these
master words of the Apostle Paul. Indeed, it is my fixed belief
that as the universal Church has been Petristic and dogmatic by
turns, so, eventually, when the full outburst of the majesty and
meaning of the domination of the Holy Spirit shall have risen upon
her, she will find that this comparatively neglected dogma, philos-
ophy, and fire of Christian charity is alike at the heart of the uni-
verse and encircles, enfolds, and embraces it, as the azure of heaven
encircles our own little world.
I make no pretence to scholarship or to pedagogism. My one
aim in life has been to comprehend and assimilate the master-
thoughts of the master writers of all ages and nations, and to
straightway forget the language and form of expression in which
said thoughts came to me; hence what little Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
German, and French I felt obliged to study many years ago has long
been forgotten, but the great and glowing thoughts of the master
spirits that have spoken and written in all these tongues are the
dearest possessions of my life and my soul. Nevertheless, I shall
not soon forget that when, about ten years ago, all that I had ever
lived for, in a human sense, fell in one black wreck about my broken
heart and outraged affection, I turned now and again to a little
Greek Testament, saved with a few other relics from said wreck,
and read and re-read, often amid burning tears, this thirteenth
chapter of First Corinthians in the original tongue, until the Greek
of it seemed far more beautiful to me than any music, and far
456 THE GLOBE.
grander, as a literary production, than anything I had ever found
in Homer or Virgil or any of the supreme master poets of the
world. It is simple as the lispings of a child, yet sweeter than the
divinest music, and grander than the martial march of heaven's
thunders through the broken skies.
Oh, that I may be able to make some of its marvelous meanings
clear and powerful in these poor words of mine!
I shall not here attempt the Greek, but try to show the relation
of this chosen chapter to the preceding utterances of the Apostle
and then to unfold the deep and far-reaching meanings of our text.
The words immediately preceding are as follows: " Now ye are
the body of Christ and members in particular; and God hath set
forth some in the Church, first, apostles — secondarily, prophets —
thirdly, teachers — after that, miracles — then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? all proph-
ets? all teachers? all workers of miracles? Have all the gift of
healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet
earnestly the best gifts. And yet show I unto you a more excel-
lent way.
" Even though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not Charity, I am become sounding brass or a clanging
cymbal. And though I may prophesy and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains and have not Charity, I am nothing.
" And though I give all my goods to feed the needy and though
I give my body to be burned and have not Charity, it profiteth me
nothing.
" Charity suffereth long and is kind; Charity envieth not, Charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself indec-
orously; seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketli no
evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth. Bear-
eth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. Charity never faileth"
In his following utterances the Apostle shows the partial and
transitory character of all the various gifts of the Spirit that he
has placed in contrast with Charity; indicates that all the petti-
nesses of temper and passion, and all pride in special gifts of any
kind are as the crude though perhaps pardonable undevelopmcnts
of childhood, and concludes that of the abiding gifts and giaces
of the Spirit — that is, faith, hope, and Charity, these three — Charity
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 457
is the greatest. Yet in what striking contrast does this teaching
stand, when compared with most of the Protestant and Catholic
rhetorical and dogmatic verbiage of our times!
We will leave the specific and dogmatic technique and meaning
of these various transitory gifts of the Spirit to casuists. We will
not here dwell upon or attempt to explain the meaning and im-
portance of faith or of hope in the great battle of life in general
or their meaning and importance in the specific battle for a Chris-
tian life and its eternal rewards.
More than half a century ago one Edward Irving, a Scotch
preacher, a friend of Carlyle's and a clandestine lover of the woman,
Jane Welsh, who afterward became the wife of Carlyle and made
his life unspeakably miserable, imagined that he and many of his
followers had the apostolic gift of tongues, and for a while they
made their little section of the city of London a worse Babel than
it usually is.
In our own times various cliques of worldly, money-making,
sectarian Protestants of utterly diluted and vanished faith,. have
called themselves Christian Scientists, and, though neither Chris-
tian nor scientific, but simply ignorant impostors, have claimed
the gifts of healing, and doubtless many weak-minded people have
been relieved of their imaginary diseases through the accidental in-
fluence of these quacks and charlatans. Indeed, far be it from me
to limit any of the modes or means or manifestations of the Divine
energy as applied to the material affairs of the universe in general
or of human life in particular. In truth, our Saviour himself at-
tributed many of His most wonderful cures to the faith of the
parties healed and not to His own miraculous power at all. But
I am to speak of Charity.
In what is known among Protestants as the " Revised " English
edition of the Scriptures the word here translated " Charity," as
in the older English Bibles, is translated " Love."
Here again I shall not go into the original language of the Bible
to show why I think that the older rendering will have to be re-
tained, but shall simply dwell upon the essential and various mean-
ings of both these words in our own English speech in vindication
of this conclusion.
One cannot justly say that either one of these words is the larger
or the more or less important of the two; though perhaps the word
love is capable of the more varied use, and, as a matter of fact, may
458 THE GLOBE.
be actually in use in more varied ways and relationships. Still,
even this position may be questioned and denied.
In many instances one might define Charity as the subjective and
passive and Love as the active and executive of Charity, the latter
being a state or condition of a loving act or a loving soul. Never-
theless, such a definition must not be considered straight-laced,
limited, or absolute. The sublimest definition of God found even
in the Scriptures is that " God is Love,'' and whoever loveth
" dwelleth in God and God in him." Here, love is the word that
best defines the ineffably beautiful subjectivity of the Divine Be-
ing, and we should not be satisfied to say that God is Charity. But
w:e should be and are satisfied to afiirm that God being love in
essence and condition is full of infinite Charity, and here Charity
is used as the co-equal conditioned state of essential deity, which
is love.
Another and a mere grammatical discrimination is that, while love
can be and is often used alike as a substantive and a verb, Charity is
almost exclusively used as a substantive. Hence, in the eleventh
commandment, " Thou shalt love the Eternal, thy God, with all
thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself." Here we cannot substitute
the word " charity " for " love," and still retain sense in our lan-
guage.
On the other hand, the word love in our tongue is capable of
being degraded into various uses to express the affection that hu-
man beings feel toward or for inanimate objects and animals; also
to express the passionate physical feeling of companionship that
human beings often are conscious of. Thus we say that we love
the flowers, that we love our pet dogs or birds; and often enough,
when the feeling is wholly or very largely selfish and sensual, hu-
man beings are said to love one another to sheerest madness. But
in none of these instances can it be said that the exquisite and
ideal and divine condition or emotion of charity is within reach or
touch of the emotions here defined. Lovers sometimes kill be-
cause they love so madly; but this is a violation of all the com-
mandments and an insult to all good sense. In a word, love in our
language has been degraded until it often is used to define mur-
derous and selfish lust and passion; but Charity is not lustful,
selfish, or murderous; hence, in some sense, it is a more exclusive,
and a more ideal, and a more divine word than love itself.
Here seems to be the place to bring in the absolute distinction
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 459
between love and passion on the one side and between love and
Charity on the other. " God is love," and " whosoever loveth is born
of God," and God so loved the world " — the human race — " that
He gave His only-begotten Son," to live among men and to die
for the world, that whosoever, being inspired by His love and life
and death, believeth in Him might have and enjoy perennial foun-
tains of life. Now, in all that we can conceive of this love in God,
or as manifested by Him in Christ, or as felt and uttered by the
human soul, there is no touch or dream or vestige of passion of any
kind, either of lust or of anger. In truth, these definitions are the
suns and pole-stars of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual uni-
verse, around which all worlds, all churches, all human souls must
at last revolve, and live and think in harmony unto the endless
eternities; and I take it that this Christian definition of God and
of His relation to our world in and through Jesus Christ is alike
the new factor in all old and new world philosophy, and in all new
world redemption.
Never until Christ came into our world was God defined as Love
— infinite and essential. Again, it is only in the light of this defini-
tion that the Incarnation can possibly be truly and fully conceived
of or understood. Again, it is only because the Eternal is essential
Love, infinite and all-embracing, that the Incarnation could have
been conceived of in the Divine Mind, and wholly by reason of this
primal fact of the divine being and essence that the Incarnate God
could have sustained the humility, the obloquy, and, humanly speak-
ing, the suffering and ignoble death — all of which was necessary
to attain human redemption and eventual and eternal glory; that
is, the goal of immortal human charity.
Strictly speaking. Charity was never conceived of except through
that phase of the essential, divine love, which, becoming incarnate
in Jesus of Nazareth, suffered all the pains and pangs of human
anguish, and by His death gave birth to a divine love in the human
heart — a love based upon gratitude to heaven for highest favors
received, and inspired by the same Holy Spirit of love that moved
the eternal depths of Deity thus to incarnate its soul in human
form, and so lift a repenting, loving, believing world up to some
conception of the ideal divine existence as seen in the face and love
of Jesus, the Son of Mary and Son of God.
Looked at in this light, therefore. Charity is at once the source
and offspring of infinite love, especially as manifested in the In-
460 THE GLOBE.
carnation of Jesus, and in the latest and. holiest and loveliest birth
and glory of the human soul that believeth in Him and is striving to
follow Him.
In a word, Charity is the eternal co-equivalent of love in the
being of God; and, supremely, that phase of the eternal love which
led to the incarnation in Jesus and the redemption of the world
through Him. It is the love of the Eternal manifesting its eternal
richness in the active benevolence which gave us a Saviour, Christ,
the Lord; and, through Him, the Holy Spirit of all tenderness,
goodness, and light; and, through this Holy Spirit, the one in-
spired Church of Christ, whose final mission is not only to teach
and insist upon faith, but everywhere and at all times to know and
teach that as infinite love gave birth to the Charity of Christ, so
faith in Christ without His Charity may simply be the confident
arrogance of hell.
Here is the place to note the unfortunate tendency of our times
to call every kind and grade of benevolent institutions charitable
institutions, while very much of our so-called modern benevolence,
as exhibited in the founding and sustaining of schools, hospitals,
orphan asylums, etc., etc., is too often utter selfishness, and when
not utter selfishness is still all too often an unwilling act of benevo-
lence and utterly devoid of the first shadow or conception or fact
of Charity. For Charity is unselfish and divinely inspired love
shown in actions of gentleness, tenderness, and love toward our
fellow-beings. Benevolence, so-called, is often a sop to Cerberus,
and still as often a tip to old Charon lest he spill us in the depths
of hell while crossing the old current we call death and its dreams.
Here also is the place to notice that wretched and false view of
life sustained by ethical infidels to the effect that we may have a
perfect system of morality without any system of religion.
In truth, without an inspired definition of God such as I have
named and an inspired Church to explain and uphold that defini-
tion, the entire universe is a go-as-you-please, and the devils of lust
and falsehood have just as much claim upon our reverence as the
eternal God of love and truth and the martyrs who have suffered
and died in loyalty to His deathless and adorable love.
Either man has sprung or climbed from apehood to godhead and
made these ineffable definitions from his own evolved and self-
sufficient consciousness of the Eternal; or, having sprung from God
and lost his way in this world, the Eternal has condescended to come
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL, 461
and help him to new light and power by the Incarnation of His love
and His loyalty to love and truth from the first to the last eternity.
If this latter is the truth, as all men except conceited, asinine,
Ingersoll men believe in our times, then have we the one true and
only basis for a noble morality and a divine religion in our world;
and all men who would build a moral system, or a system of ethics
so-called, on this basis or on the accomplished consciousness of this
divine revelation and ministry, and still deny the revelation, the
ministry, and the religion growing out of the same, are simply
robbers — as our Saviour truly said of such as these. And, more-
over, robbers that are baser in their graceless and ungrateful souls
than the worst thieves in our penitentiaries.
Accepting therefore the New Testament definition of God as
named, we have a perfect basis for all highest morality and all sub-
limest religion; for, if God is love and if the highest manifestation
of this love is in that divine Charity that begat the Incarnation and
sustained our divine Lord in all His labors, teachings, sufferings,
and death among us, surely the noblest conceivable evolution of
human nature is to aim for and attain a similar love, acting itself
out in all our relations with the world by a similar unselfish Charity
of life and of death. And here is where we get at the true discrim-
ination between all natural human love and that divine Charity of
love, which, ever born of God, seeks to imitate Him as He lived
in the life and death of His dear Son.
Here also we get at the distinction between acts of so-called
benevolence, done from selfish motives, and acts of benevolence
done from the promptings of this divine and heaven-given Char-
ity.
Prompted by the maternal instinct animals have been known to
fight and die for their young. Moved by a similar instinct, human
mothers have been known to suffer and die • for their offspring.
Prompted by inspirations of patriotic excitement tens of thousands
of brave men have accepted death on the battle-field and without
a murmur. Inspired by love of adventure, many hundreds of dar-
ing men have ventured into unknown recesses of the earth never
to return alive, and the most accomplished of generals have some-
times sacrificed their valuable lives to turn the tide of battle; so
that death in itself, or the willingness to meet death, are not ex-
ceptional glories of the Founder of our religion or of His saintly
followers. Nor can we or would we impugn or belittle any of the
463 THE GLOBE.
motives that have led men or women to seek and to meet death
for great ends in all ages of the world.
But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were
yet rebels, sinners, antagonistic to His laws and His government,
deniers even of His existence, He evolved and executed the delib-
erate plan of the most exalted and self-sacrificing humiliation in
the spirit of ineffable love, that He might save us from our worst
vileness, that is, hatred of Himself and a shrinking from the final
beatitude of our souls, which is the sight of His face and union
with Him.
The deliberate habit of all inanimate and animate creation, in-
cluding man in his natural and fallen state, is to prey upon its
neighbor and, vampire-like, drink its sap or its blood in order to
self-sustenance or luxury.
The habit of the divine soul, as seen in the incarnate God who
dwelt among us, is to reverse all this and give His own life and
life-blood for the health and salvation and glory of others, and this
is Charity — the outburst of infinite and stainless and inimitable
and holy love.
God in Christ, therefore, is the reversion of the vampire habit of
fallen and universal nature; and human Charity, to be worthy the
name, must spring spontaneous from the same hallowed and clearest
fountains of love born in us by the grace of God.
Charity is the crown jewel in the star-like love of God. Charity
bears the relation to love that the light of the sun bears to the
central fires of its burning heart and core. Charity is the honey-
comb of our mortal life. Charity is at once the purest simplicity
and the divinest art of the human soul. Charity is at once the
flora and the fragrance of our sin-cursed, blighted world. Charity
is the inspiring essence of all goodness. Charity is the gem for
the finding of which all churches are built, all prayers offered,
all altars erected, all sacrifices made. To pretend to love God and
perform religious duties while your heart harbors hate toward a
fellow-being is an infamous parody of religion, the very center and
life-blood of which is Charity springing from tlie fountains of in-
finite love.
" Meek and lowly, pure and holy.
Chief among the blessed three; —
Turning sadness into gladness,
Heaven-born art thou. Charity! "
THE MASTER FORGE OF ALL. 463
Having thus very imperfectly looked into the sources, the mean-
ing, the beauty, and the glory of Charity, let us dwell a little upon
the last words of our text, " Charity never faileth." In a word, let
us see how and why it is the master force of all.
In the first place. Charity never fails as to duration. It is not
mortal and transient like the various other gifts and graces of the
Spirit, but immortal as the soul of man and the being of God.
The gift of speaking so as to be understood in various languages
seems to have been a special inspiration granted to the early fol-
lowers of Jesus so that their words might become an immediate
blessing to the listeners and a glory of surprise even to the Apostles
themselves; an evoking of the ever-present power of God and the
latent and dormant powers of the human soul to speak in a way
to be understood by all races of the world — a touch of nature
and the supernatural that made the whole world kin. One might
add many fanciful surmises and suggestions as to why that gift
was vouchsafed at the dawning day of our faith, but I have neither
time nor inclination for such fanciful conceits. The point to our
purpose here is that, whatever the object of this gift, it seems to
have been alike transient in its nature, its uses, and its demands.
In case of need it would doubtless come again, as the hand of the
Eternal is not shortened and is as ready as ever to meet the im-
mediate needs of the human race. It was transient — ^but Charity
abideth forever; is, in fact, an essential and elemental feature and
fact of the divine and of every redeemed human soul.
In substance the same may be said of Hope and of Faith. Every
phase and force of hope, temporal and spiritual, is a condition of
our mortal and earthly existence. We hope for that which we have
not but long to attain; and whether this be wealth, friendship,
human love, rest of spirit, anything within the reach of human
desire, the very cause and meaning of it is found in our at present
fallen and imperfect state of being; but when we have all that the
soul can legitimately hope for, the wealth of eternity, the love of
all that is lovely, rest and joy that are stainless and immortal, hope
will have changed to glad fruition, and this deep and often un-
uttered buoyancy of the earthly life that sustains us in so many
instances when we can neither see nor quite trust, will fall from
us like a worn-out star, another and a better light having come
to bless us as long as our spirits dream and roam the far spaces of
the infinite universe.
464 THE GLOBE.
The same is precisely true of faith and of all the dogmas of faith
that have vexed the energies of so many minds alike in the making
and accepting of dogma. We are saved by grace through faith, and
that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. During this, our
probationary period of existence, faith is the pole-star of the soul.
It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things un-
seen. Without it a million hopes would fall each hour like faded
leaves shaken and driven by the autumn winds. Faith is the di-
vine spark that lights the human mind in its darkest hours, saves
the drifting barque of the soul from a thousand shallows of infi-
delity, wTeck, and crime. Faith in the word of Christ as taught
and impressed by His Church gives, even in this world, the rest
and peace that many unbelieving minds dream can only be attained
in eternity. Faith is what the soul grasps at a touch, but the touch
is nerved by the omnipotent power of the Spirit of God. Faith is
so mighty that it can banish disease from the body, remove moun-
tains from the onward path of man, place the burdened and afflicted
life of man in rapturous and beatific union with the Eternal, leap
all barriers of time and sense and stand enchanted amid the wings
of angels and before the throne of God.
It is the greatest possible gift of God to our earth-bound human
life. But when faith is changed to actual sight, when we cease to
need the childish helps of pictures, beads, and creeds; when we
have left the habiliments of this, our earthly life, behind us and
have ascended to the starry homes of the redeemed; when we no
longer see through a glass darkly — diml)% as in a mirror or by re-
flection— but see Christ face to face and know Him and all things,
even as we are now known of Him, then all our faith and all our
doubts of faith will fade into that afterglow of the last eternal sun-
set— when there shall be no more sun, for God himself shall be
our light and we shall dwell with Him and in Him forever. In a
word, faith is at once the greatest need and the greatest blessing
of our terrestrial existence; but in our immortal, celestial exist-
ence will be no longer needed and will no longer exist, but will
have faded — like all the shreds and ashes of this, our earthly life —
while our souls, enlightened by the clear Eternal Presence, will
have risen above the need of faith, as we shall have risen above the
need of hope; for God shall be our light, our home, and all things
that can gratify and delight the redeemed soul will be ours forever.
Into the same category of vanished fragments of our earthly life
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 465
will also have faded all the learning, all the philosophy, all the
dogma, all the creeds of all the churches and of all the races and
nations of the world.
In this our mortal life, these accomplishments of the mind of
man, often inspired by the Spirit of God, are the ideal and the
supremely beautiful attainments and utterances of the soul. But
they are only for time, not for eternity: " Whether there be knowl-
edge, it shall vanish away." All human knowledge is partial.
Every form of our highest Catholic creeds has been evolved to meet
and slay some transient form of error that has for a longer or shorter
period darkened the mind of man; and the pure dogma of the
Church to-day and the pure faith of the soul in such dogma are
as necessary as was the life or the death of Jesus himself.
Whosoever climbeth up or tries to climb up by some other way
is a thief and a robber. The dogmas of the Church are the moral
and spiritual constellations in the unseen heavens of the soul. But
when the stars themselves have fallen, being no longer needed, all
these dogmas that have so vexed the world and that still are such
fearful stumbling-blocks in the way of unbelieving men — and
which w^e rightly insist upon as the gateways to that faith which
alone can save and guide the human spirit — will also fade like so
many sea-fogs of the morning, their far, far ends of glory having
been attained.
Of course the same is true of every position and office of honor
or service held in the Church or in the governments of the world
to-day.
When there are no more dogmas preachers will no longer be
needed to proclaim or expound them.
Where there is no longer any need of sacrifice or offering or
prayer, all sins having been forgiven and all altars shattered
in the final wreck of earthly things, there will no longer be any
need of priests to minister for us, for God himself, in Christ the
glorified, will be our only and immediate High Priest, bishop, arch-
bishop, cardinal. Pope or Holy Father as long as our souls endure.
And with the fading and utter annihilation of the hierarchy of the
Church will have gone forever all the kings and thrones and princes
and officialism of this mortal sphere.
" And many that are first shall be last.
And many that are last shall be first."
VOL. VII,— 31.
406 THE GLOBE.
For in those eternal homes of light and glory philosophy will not
count. Titles will be unknown and unremembered. Rhetoric and
eloquence will be silent as the broken cymbals of a showman; and
many a beggar and many a poverty-smitten sufferer of this world,
having learned humility and obedience by his poverty and hunger
and anguish, will be called to the highest places in the gift of God's
glorified and almighty Son.
You have all heard of the poor, persecuted priest, who when in
heaven went gazing into the faces of the saints in the upper tiers
of glory, hoping to find, embrace, and forgive the archbishop whose
acts of tyranny had made his life a crawling misery in this world;
and how amazed he was to find that said archbishop had literally
blown himself into the hottest centers of hell by the blizzards of
his own wild vanity and unprincipled ambition. — But this is too
serious a place for jokes and jokers like these.
In a word, precisely as the life of Jesus was and remains to this
day, a perfect reversion of the vampire order of nature and human
society, so will heaven be a reversion of the proud and pampered
order of the ecclesiastical and temporal crowns, powers, and hon-
ors of these our mortal days. But in all the indescribable glories
of eternity. Charity and humility will be exalted and immortal in
their exaltation for ever and ever, world without end.
Charity is not sycophancy, charity is not sleuth-hound suspicion;
Charity is not liberal giving of stolen goods or money or lands.
Charity is essential, innate, deliberate, unsuspecting, constant, ten-
der, loving, unselfish, enduring kindness, pledged to and engaged
in any work for the betterment of mankind. In a word, precisely
as Charity is the innermost and dominating force of the being and
action of the eternal God of Love, so is Charity the innermost and
dominating force of every soul that is born again of the Holy S]Mrit
of this eternal God of Love.
And as the one force in God is immortal, has existed and acted
from eternity and will exist and act in the divine economy to eter-
nity, so will the same force — kindled in the human soul by contact
with its father and mother force in God — live in man and beautify
and glorify his soul to all eternity.
You cannot smite it, or slay it, or tarnish it. Like the finest
phantom of the unseen sacredness of the Divine soul, it evades you,
slips from your avenging arm, turns again and shines upon you —
follows you to death and beckons your vicious soul out of the depths
of hell.
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 467
Charity never faileth, in the sense that it never grows old or
weary; never is out of date or out of fashion, but is forever the
ideal inner beauty and the heavenliest garment of the soul.
In still another and perhaps a more important sense, charity
never faileth, but is the master force of all the forces of God and
of eternity. That is. Charity never faileth to accomplish the ends
it aims for. It is and forever has been and forever will be the mas-
ter force of eternity.
It moulded the making of the universe to such lines and plans
of truth and beauty as should at last delight the soul of God, of
angels, and of redeemed mankind.
When man had fallen by the exercise of his free will. Charity
evolved the plan that should redeem him again by choice of his free
will inspired by charity's own wooing and winning power; a plan
that, while meeting and exercising all the resources of omnipotence,
omniscience, and all-pervading love, should at the same time re-
develop power and wisdom and love in the fallen soul of man, and
through the fond touches of its own tenderness make out of the
wandering children of men the home-going, home-dwelling, heaven-
loving, Charity-winging, eternal sons and daughters of eternal love.
And in all this it never has failed for a moment or to a hair's
breadth, but is eternal, universal, everywhere, and in all things,
victor and master and conqueror to the last and minutest eternity.
A few thousand years ago the sole germ of this choicest virtue
of the soul and the sole hope of its evolution in the human race
lay in the sulking and fallen heart of one shame-faced man, whose
intelligence above the brute creation had no sooner been inspired
within him by Almighty God than, by sheer, self-conceited rebellion,
he found himself hiding from the face of his Creator and flying
from the only source whence true Charity has ever sprung. And
if any man to-day complains of the slow progress of this grace
through the centuries that intervened between the birth of the first
father of mankind and that chosen, immaculate Mother of love
through whose virgin soul the divine Son of God's own infinite
Charity was born, I bid the modern carper examine his own soul
and find how little of the real grace of Charity he himself has at
this late hour of time.
Better far is it to dwell, with infinite gratitude to God, upon
these great salient points of history, wherein is seen the mighty
victories that Charity has wrought for our race, and, taking a new
408 THE GLOBE.
start from these star-fires of the infinite love, strive to imitate the
example of the sons and daughters of the Highest who have won
for us these higher accomplishments of perfect character and per-
fect pea<;e.
I hold that it is only in the purest Christian characters that true
Charity can be found. Mere toleration of error, heresy, and un-
belief is not Charity. If God had not become incarnate in our hu-
manity and had not founded a teaching and a ruling Church in this
world expressly and explicitly intended, ordained, and directed to
teach and guide men's souls in their relations to moral duty and to
God, the matter of belief in this or the other creed might be, as
heretics and infidels assume, a matter of individual opinion, in
which case one man's creed may be worthy the same respect as an-
other's. But if Christ was God incarnate, and if the Catholic
Church is His authorized teaching and ruling body in this world,
then men are infinitely more bound to accept its dogmas than they
are to accept the common-law notions of right and wrong, truth
and falsehood, theft and honesty.
In truth, precisely as Catholic faith and religious observances,
when unaccompanied with trueness and gentleness of life, often
seem to be mere personal pride and arrogance, so ninety per cent,
of so-called toleration is a deep-seated, self-satisfied pride in one's
own crude and unorthodox beliefs.
That sleepy and wordy and shuffling old man, E. E. Hale, for
instance, of Boston, whose books are the wordiest and most sense-
less, contradictory and soulless of all modern literary productions,
and whom the fading-fast Unitarians look upon as a sort of Pope
among them, may well be tolerant of the absurdities of Universal ists,
the crudeness of Baptists, the rare and tare of Methodists, and the
petticoat screamers in the pulpits of all these persuasions, since his
own mind, heart, and soul have never earnestly sought the core of
religious truth, never have felt willing to accept such truth at the
hand of God's only teaching lips in this world, and never even con-
sidered the fact that obedience is greater than conceit or even than
sacrifice; and the same formula will apply to every variety of
heretical and conceited Protestant under the sun.
Certainly those who have been blessed with true faith and any
dnwning of pure Charity will and must have a steady and pitiful
kindliness of heart and life toward their less fortunate unbelieving
neighbors. For Charity is broad as the race and far more exquisite.
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 469
But this kindliness of heart and life toward unbelievers does not
imply and must not involve toleration of their errors.
If the matter of belief were of little or no value, then Christ had
not died. If the Hebrew faith and practice of His day were God's
final word and ideal life in our world, the death of Jesus and espe-
cially our interpretation of the vast importance of that death are
the veriest absurdities.
If the teachings of Socrates and Plato, Cicero and Seneca were
of equal importance with those of Jesus and of Paul, then is Chris-
tianity an eternal farce and the Church of Rome a gilded and a
varnished lie. But if Christ were God with us, and if the Church
of Rome is His exponent through all ages, E. E. Haleism and Phil-
lips-Brooksism, not to speak of Beecherism and modern Lyman-
Abbotism and Ingersollism, are things to be fought with more
energy than we fight yellow fever or an invading army.
Nevertheless, while Charity does not excuse us from fighting the
errors of mankind or of womankind, it obliges us to treat their per-
sons and their lives with all the tenderness of devoted friends.
Charity endureth all things, even the ignorant, upstart arrogance
of female heretics.
Nineteen hundred years ago the quintessence of this divine
Charity in our world slept beneath the sinless lids of a new-born
child in a manger in a stable at Bethlehem in Palestine. A gen-
eration later, when this child, now grown to manhood, was being
jeered at on the cross by priests and high-priests as an upstart
mystic, now properly enough dying for his presumption, it pierced
the ears of the universe with its heart-broken cry, " My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? "
If I at all rightly understand human history, the last nineteen
hundred years have been one steady, prolonged, and unalterable
answer to that prayer — and to the effect, " I have not deserted thee.
Thou incarnate soul of my soul, and Love of my Love; thou Morn-
ing Star of Eternal Charity, I was only consenting to the loving
and loyal humility of infinite kindness, that the ages of coming
glory, of penitence, and love and loyalty and Charity to be born
of that hour should seem all the more glorious by comparison with
the darkest hour of the world."
And to-day, dear friends, to-day the utterer of that cry has so
saturated the hardened heart of time with His own divine tender-
ness that all our sunrises and sunsets are touched with a tenderness
470 THE GLOBE.
of loveliness and beauty not known to the ages of the world l^efore
Jesus died. So I see that Charity never faileth, though it oft-n
seems to fail; and that only by this eternal law is it that the cruci-
fied of yesterday becomes the loving dictator of the world to-
morrow.
A little more than nineteen hundred years ago, when Cleoi)atra
was Queen of Egypt, and she and the wives of the Caesars were the
great and almost adored women of the civilized world, the very sun-
rise of this heavenly Charity was asleep in the womb of a shy-faced,
modest, humble, devout, but beautiful unknown, unobserved He-
brew maiden, whose perfect loveliness was first then dawning upon
the village life of Palestine. Still a little later, this maiden, now
the wife of an humble mechanic, was going a pilgrim to Bethlehem,
a suspicioned wife, with a thousand sacred memories of a heavenly
love rising in her heart to counteract those keen recollections of
pain at the thought that even her betrothed husband had not felt
sure of her virtue; and soon, in the night, under the cold stars,
grown warm for her sake — so near is heaven to its own — a child
is born to this young mother, in a stable, the inn being crowded.
And it was all as quiet and modest in its heavenly consciousness
as the last and great birth of dawn. No trumpets were sounded at
this birth hour, and the new mother was one of the countless mill-
ions of intensely humble and sensitive mothers whose first-born
children have come to an unwelcome world of poverty and of care.
But 0! the God's love in that woman's heart! 0! the divine ten-
derness of deathless charity that filled her being. 0! the folding
of ineffable sweetness of love out of which this child of the manger
came. To-day, Cleopatra and the wives of the Caesars are remem-
bered only as the posing representative women of the pride and lust
of those days, and no one has loved them for nigh two thousand
years, while this humble child of God's Eternal Charity has risen
in beauty and glory age after age, and is to-day loved and trusted
as the divine mother by hundreds of millions of the noblest men
and the purest and noblest women of all the ages of time. Nay,
more, is exalted by the purest judgments of history as Queen, not
of some petty province of this world, but as Queen of prophets,
Queen of apostles. Queen of martyrs. Queen of all saints, Queen of
angels, and the highest, the most exalted, the most honored, the
most trusted, the most potent and powerful, the most glorified, and
the most loved of all the created intelligences of the universe.
THE MASTER FORCE OF ALL. 471
I am not preaching theory or dogma to you. I am simply stat-
ing the simplest facts known to all the millions of men and women
now inhabiting the civilized portions of the world.
I am not urging anyone to love and honor this Hebrew mother of
the Eternal Charity of God; I am simply reminding you of the
honors already paid her; but I beg to assure you that all the world
shall yet become converts to this cult of loving devotion to Mary of
Bethlehem — the Queen Mother of the quenchless love of God. My
object here, however, is only to remind you all that Charity, though
humble and timid as poverty incarnate, and persecuted by tyrants,
and driven to the remotest and lowliest corners of the earth for its
birth and its career, never fails of its object, but, in the long run,
conquers the world.
True Charity is often as forceful and victorious in what it re-
frains from doing and saying as in the things it says and does.
History records the fact that a great and famous prelate of the
Roman Catholic Church, who was once stealthily and viciously de-
ceived by an ambitious and unprincipled fellow-prelate, and so put
in a false and humiliating light before the eyes of the especial able-
gate of the Pope and in the eyes of the Pope himself, steadily re-
fused to make any defence or explanation, simply because he could
not do this without criminating the fellow that betrayed him. But
after a little the true facts of the case reached the ears of the able-
gate and of the Pope also, when, of course, the wretch who dug the
pit for his unsuspecting peer fell straightway into the pit himself,
and only scrambled out with his character soiled and ruined for-
ever. Were I preaching a sermon on the text that whosoever layeth
a snare for his brother shall be caught in his own trap, here would
be an excellent place to point that moral; but I am preaching of
the Charity that never faileth. Of course, in the case referred to,
the outraged prelate rose higher and higher from that time for-
ward, alike in the favor of God and man; and I call his conduct in
this case the victory of silent charity — the very charity of God.
In Victor Hugo's powerful story of Jean val Jean, in " Les Mis-
erables," you remember the hero had stolen a loaf of bread in order
to appease the hunger of his children, was arrested for the theft,
tried, convicted, and sent to prison; escaped from prison, engaged
in mercantile life, became wealthy and respectable, when one day
he learned that a poor man, somewhat resembling him in person,
had been arrested, was on trial and at the point of being convicted
472 Tilt; GLOBE.
and imprisoned for Jean val Jean's own crime, plus his escape from
authority; at which point the real culprit — now a gentleman —
enters the court-room, attired in his best, looking pale, dignified,
and resolute, and confesses that he is the real Jean val Jean; de-
clares that the poor man at the bar is innocent, gives ample evidence
of the deep sincerity and veracity of his statement, and the inherent
greatness of his act is such that the poor man under trial is im-
mediately set free, while Jean val Jean stands waiting rearrest for
expiation of his crime; but no hand of the law is laid upon him;
justice, so-called, is once more conquered of heroic mercy; the very
stigma of former imprisonment is banished by this noble act, and
instead of viewing the escaped prisoner as a culprit, the court and
the world are inclined to treat him as a god. I call this the charity
of sacrifice, the divinest charity of all. These are but hints at the
truth that Charity never faileth.
Finally, Charity is the master force of all, and in this thought
I find the supreme philosophy of the apostle and the master thought
of all time and of all eternity.
Ours is an age in which the word force is far more familiar than
the word charity or love or duty. The scientist, so-called; the lit-
erary man, so-called; even the preacher, so-called, in these days,
will hardly write a page or utter a sentence in which the word force
does not occur.
This is the pet word of all the Herbert Spencer gangs of philos-
ophers, so-called, and I call them gangs because as to real intel-
lectual perception of the actual and subtlest phenomena of this
universe they are no better than gangs of laborers in our factories
or on our railroads, and sometimes not half as gifted. In fact,
Herbert Spencer himself, after browsing in all the pastures of the
universe, and proving to his own satisfaction the physical and me-
chanical basis of all forces, and the correlation of all forces, and
the unity of all forces, waddled back to the old theistic truism that
an unknown absolute force — as well called God as anything — was
the master force of all; and again and again I have asserted that
he was driven to this not at all by his own shallow and sieve-like
principles of sociology, but by force of a Superior Mind whose
thought he borrowed and never acknowledged.
Ijet us accept the old truism, call God Love, according to the
Scriptures, see in the incarnation the eternal Charity of God as
Love, and we have what to my mind, these last thirty years, is the
THE MASTER FORGE OF ALL. 473
only basis for the only true philosophy of the infinite universe, of
all human life, and of the birth and ministry of every flower that
blooms.
Smitten by the mechanic gang philosophy men have explained
the evolution and the movements of the stars, and the movements
of every human act, by the Newtonian laws of the force attraction;
but again and again the falsity and folly of this theory have been
proven, and to any mind unstifled with such false theories it is pal-
pable that a much larger and more profound and more consistent
force than that of Newton's force of attraction moulded and for-
ever controls the motions of the stars and of all things human and
divine. In fact this physical-basis and mechanic-force theory of
the origin and government of the universe is now held only by
misled and deluded mechanic souls; and sooner or later the think-
ing world will find how this change in modern thought was wrought
during the third generation of the nineteenth century.
Even our shallow-pated Anglo-American Madame-Blavatsky
Esoteric Buddhistic and Psychic moonshine is a mild protest against
Herbert Spencerism. Men will not believe that the universe sprang
from a turnip, and that the turnip — spite of its acknowledged
medicinal qualities — is Almighty God. Men are coming back to
believe that the real plasma of eternity forever was, is to-day, and
will forever remain, intelligent, omniscient, omnipotent, and divine.
And again I say, call this eternal plasma God, and call this God
Love, and you are back to the Hebrew prophets, forward to Christ,
as God with us, and only need your eyes opened to see that Charity,
which is divine love in benevolent action, is the master force that
made the world, created man, and redeemed him, and so are you on
the road to the care of that Eternal Sacrifice of Charity which built
the Church of God out of the blood of the chief Martyr and out of
all the Martyrs of Charity, giving and upholding the eternal word
of Charity, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In
a word, that Charity is the master force of all.
All mechanic forces, including all human forces other than
Charity, are bom of the inner fires that consume the very centers
whence they spring. The force of electricity is in the exact meas-
ure of the consumed fires that produce it; so of the force of a
cannon-ball; so of the force of human governments; but Charity
is the uncreated, eternal fountain of the divine creative energy.
Charity is the very breath of God. Charity gave birth to Jesus
474 THE GLOBE.
and nerved His soul to endure the anguish that is winning human
redemption and shaping human civilization. Charity touches each
dawn and each sunset with roseate and radiant glory. Charity
makes all human duty more beautiful than morning, though said
duty be lonelier than death, and has, at first, only a scaffold for its
reward. Charity so moulds the hearts of men and nations that the
victories of its own greatest heroes are secured. Charity is slowly
turning all hells of hate and crime and darkness into eternal homes
of joy. Charity is the only force in all the infinite universe that
does not exhaust itself by service and action, but increases its power
in the precise measure of the purity and energy with which it is
exercised. Charity is thus a reversion of the wasting power of use
that dominates all nature, and thus is its own evidence of its own
Eternal Mastery and divinity.
Let us seek it; let us live it, and so make our lives divine.
William Henry Thorne.
TIMES ARE HARD.
Everyone says so. Wherever you may be, to whatever quarter
of the city you bend your steps, ask the first man you meet about
business conditions; and he will answer, " Things are dull. Im-
possible to make a living! " Yet the fields are fertile as ever, the
lakes and rivers as full of fish; in fine, all nature as rich as in years
gone by. She is in no sense the cause of our misfortunes nor in
any wise responsible for this deplorable state of things. Let us stir
up the social gutter a little, though, and we shall begin to be
edified.
First of all, we shall see that everyone wants to get rich in a week
or so, in order to indulge in all the pleasures money can give. This
is not exactly, in itself considered, an evil desire, save as it prac-
tically leads to other ills. Incited by this keen desire, the money-
seekers flock to the great city of New Orleans. Then follows a
notable increase of the slums, and closer packing — their wretched
dwellings swarming with colonies of outcast negroes, all bent upon
finding in the city some way of living without work. And this is
what ensues. This pariah caste of society piles itself up in certain
localities, like a great ant-hill. These people work little during
the day, and pass the night howling in a little sentry-box which
TIMES ARE HARD. 475
they choose to call a church. Now and then, when hunger presses,
they lay hands on anything they find. If they are caught, justice
is lenient — nay, even if occasionally severe, still merciful! — for she
provides food and shelter, requiring no labor in return.
As for the man who does work and receives good pay on Satur-
day night, he would be unhappy if he carried home this fruit of his
toil. He spends it all in getting drunk Saturday night. He must
recompense himself for a week's industry; he drinks, fights with
somebody, often kills or gets killed. In either case he makes a row
and is a nuisance to the public. If bread is needed for his family
or rent is due, he has not a cent left. He must depend upon credit;
and when that fails there is but one resource more — the mother
and children must betake themselves to thievery or begging. These
human beings, becoming non-producers, are thenceforward a pub-
lic charge.
The workman of Caucasian blood varies little from this type,
save in one thing. While the negro lives on very little and has no
ambition, the other feels surging within him, from day to day^ the
desires of a marquis. He must dress in the latest style, wears a silk
hat, demands at his table the early luxuries of the season and choice
wines, like a bank president. As for his wife, she thinks herself
just as good as the woman of millions; she may be right — she is,
perhaps, even better! Why should she not, likewise, have silk
gowns and all the allurements of fashion? She can wear them
with the same grace. She finds these fripperies becoming! Possibly
so; but the deuce of it is that the workman cannot hold his own
at this game.
Then societies are organized and various associations in order to
obtain shortened hours of labor with higher wages. This fin-de-
siecle gentleman insists upon producing little and receiving much.
The boldest in this army of limited labor live at the expense of the
rest and become the ringleaders in social disaffections. In their
own way they finally get to be monopolists of the worst kind, going,
at times, even to the point of assassination to keep more sensible
workmen from taking lower wages than those they, in their con-
summate wisdom, have fixed upon. These societies are as much
a cause of trouble in the community as the great trusts so much
complained of. We should like to see both, alike, swallowed up in
a general deluge!
If, instead of this workman of extravagant and exaggerated tastes.
476 THE GLOBE.
we had the workingman as he ought to be — the Christian working-
inaTi, who comprehends that he ought to work because this is the
law of God, who knows how to economize, who does not spend a
cent outside of his own family — we should have, also, a population
in healthy condition. As it is at the present day, we can fairly say
that this army of labor is made up of idlers, ignorant politicians,
and incorrigible drunkards.
Look, now, also at the brilliant youth, dreaming of wide public
control in the early future — if not in the present, even. Our young
people have learned to read and write in the public schools — the
other schools being no longer accounted of, especially the Christian
schools. Armed with this modicum of knowledge they think them-
selves phoenixes, able to argue down all the sages of the past. Un-
luckily, they have only that varnish of learning which does not
admit even of doubt or self-distrust. Hardly twelve years old, they
are already anxious for place and salary. Is it to carry a few dollars
home and aid their mothers? Not at all. It is to pass their nights
chez Ninine and to contract there germs of disease sure to bring
misfortune later into many families. During the day, if their em-
ployer sends them to the bank, they will never fail to stop at the
race-course and try their luck on a horse that is to run in China
or Japan. Inexperienced pigeons as they are, they nevertheless too
often stake the money of others and betray the confidence of their
employers. Their parents are compelled to rescue them financially
— and that with speed — to avoid exposure and disgrace. This is
the way they take to fit themselves for public life and the duties of
paternity.
Now, consider them as grown men, the fathers of families. Have
they improved with the flight of years? Alas, each age of life has
its " pleasures " — we should say its passions. These men are very
little better than they were in youth. No longer able to play the
part of the dangler after and pursuer of women with their former
assiduity, they make amends by haunting the temple of Bacchus.
This is not saying that they ever really give up debauchery; but,
nature rebelling against their lusts, they console themselves with
the bottle. Their throats are always dry as a sponge. So only the
tax-collector knows how many cafes and drinking-holes are in New
Orleans. As each block has four corners, there are at least four
saloons to each; and you must not imagine that these factories ever
shut down — day and night, winter and summer, they are in full
TIMES ARE HARD. 477
blast. If you enter these places you find them doing a fine busi-
ness. Moreover, you meet within their precincts the leading men
of the city — magistrates, lawyers, statesmen, men of the gown as
well as the sword, all come to do sacrifice before the goddess of the
bottle. You may even behold in a state of intoxication men of
great prominence — the high-grade politician as well as the vulgar
knight of the trowel.
Here they spend in an hour the salaries of a week. While dis-
playing in these haunts a boundless liberality — inviting the whole
crowd to drink at their expense — they fail to pay the butcher, tiie
baker, and the general grocer. They are never in funds when a
legitimate note, already overdue, is sent them. In truth, they pay
nothing but the saloon-keeper's score. The traders who have given
them credit, and perhaps loaned them money besides, will never
set eyes on them again except to be insulted by these self-styled
" gentlemen."
To this wretched situation add the club, the gaming-house, and
the petites amies, whom a man of this stamp is compelled to meet
from time to time, and see if it is possible for business to be good
— that is to say, possible for such men to meet their debts. They
cannot even meet the needs of their families — needs quite as nu-
merous as their own — since, generally, " hon chien chasse de race/'
These people never lay up a penny; they cannot do so. Involun-
tarily they become chevaliers dHndustrie, and live by their wits.
So much for the men. It would be better perhaps not to speak
of their wives; yet guardedly and with caution one may touch a
wound. In short, if these words hurt their feelings, certainly they
were not penned with that intention.
The wife and mother in Louisiana is good and virtuous, having
maintained this type bravely in days long past. Time, however,
touching the world with his wand, has now somewhat modified old
expressions and standards of morality. Formerly, the pecuniary
condition of families was such that their female members were ex-
empt from all manual labor. Times have altered; now-a-days wom-
an has to enter the field of toil and take her portion thereof. Only
the young lady, fearing to spoil her prospects matrimonial, persists
in idling like a doll, while her mother is working herself to death
among the various drudgeries of the house. Her youthful face
must not be touched by the sun, her white hands must not be soiled
or stained; she must not lift a straw. All she can do is to play the
478 THE GLOBE,
piano, embroider or try some other fancy-work. This was her only
occupation in by-gone days. But now, with the changed situation,
she is forced to think of earning something — if not her bread, at
least the wherewithal for her toilette. It was natural to begin with
housework at home, in order to dispense with a cook or nurse-maid.
But this was demanding too much; these tasks seemed to her vile
and degrading. In houses where there was actual stress of poverty,
a luxurious home-life was, nevertheless, maintained. To meet its
expense the young girl has turned to the shop and the factory. She
deems this kind of labor more dignified. Unwilling to devote her-
self to household duties in her own home, it would be pure insult
to advise her seeking employment in richer families in any such
capacity. These situations are all left to foreigners and colored
women. The pay is good, to be sure, but the young girl does not
care for this. The point of view is different. The shop or factory
requires of her a full da/s work, of six or seven hours, for the mod-
est sum of fifty cents. While cooks and chambermaids earn the
same in cash they receive food and shelter besides. The shop-girl
finds that her remuneration is small and insufficient for her needs.
She at once complains to the proprietor. But he coolly replies,
" I know it is very little; but you are young and pretty — you will
manage to get along! "
More than all this is the fact that the great store absorbs the
fair sex. The young lady finds there a dainty place where she can
conduct her correspondence, a drawing-room where everything is
arranged for her comfort, so that she can make it a resting-place
for some hours, most delightfully. The husband's account at the
end of the month feels all this. Like the workingman, he runs
in debt and cannot pay. It is impossible for him to alter his habits;
so he goes to the money-lender, and soon disgraces alike his signa-
ture and his word of honor.
So one and all cry out on the " hard times." " Business is dull,
money scarce! " they say, and refuse to meet their honest and rea-
sonable obligations. At the same time the theatres, ball-rooms, and
other places of amusement are thronged to overflowing. The water-
ing-places are crowded. Only the men who are really doing a large
business and owe no man anything remain in town. The public
emigrates for the summer. It finds plenty of money for this. It
is said that if a family chance to possess a pleasure residence on the
other shore of the lake, they find an unexpected flock of friends and
CONTENTMENT. 479
relatives arriving every day, who invite themselves for a visit, with-
out ceremony and without scruple.
This is but a feeble sketch of our social condition. It is enough
to prove that a state of things so demoralized and generally rotten
cannot endure long. The evil is decided, universal, and past cure.
It will take a sharp revolution to purify such an atmosphere and
change the face of society.
Translated from L'Observateur Louisianais by Caroline D.
Swan.
CONTENTMENT.
Within the confines of this little room,
Whose narrow space has held my hopes and fears
For lo, what matters it, how many years, —
I find a garden in perennial bloom.
There's not an ingle-nook nor comer small;
There's not an object — picture, print, nor book;
There's not a hand's-breadth span upon the wall,
That blossoms not to memory 'neath my look.
And like a garden, when the sunshine plays.
No fairer pleasance can reflect her rays.
And though when gloom and murk pervade, I know
These erstwhile beauties of my garden fade.
Where is it otherwise? When all is said,
I'd not exchange my realm for aught below.
New York. J. W. Schwartz.
480 THE GLOBE.
GLOBE NOTES,
November 5, 1897. — The recent decease of my old friend, John
Sartain, of Philadelphia, has led me to devote the opening para-
graphs of these Globe Notes to a few words in memory of him
and of two or three other prominent men who have recently passed
away.
The daily newspapers have already given detailed accounts of
the men whose names I shall here mention, hence I confine my re-
marks to a few personal relationships and to points that I have not
seen in the papers.
John Sartain, born December 34, 1808, died October 25, 1897,
and who, for more than sixty years, was one of the most prominent
figures in the United States in all matters concerning the develop-
ment of art in this country, was a native of southern England, and
from that quarter inherited those sturdy elements of character, con-
stitution, and longings for the ideal in art and in life that have
made his name a household word in tens of thousands of families
during the last half century.
It always seemed to me that there was a touch of Hebrew blood
somewhere in Mr. Sartain's ancestry, and, for that matter, I sup-
pose there is some of the old stock in most of us. At all events,
though a man of the widest religious sympathies, what actual church
affiliations he had in this world were with the Unitarians. Sin-
gularly enough, however, the broader side of the man's life dom-
inated the services held at his funeral; and while a Unitarian min-
ister nominally officiated, the ablest and the most human address
of the occasion was made by Rabbi Levy, and the choir of the Con-
gregation Keneseth Israel, Mrs. Kunkel-Zimmerman, Miss Whit-
taker, Mr. N. Douty, and Mr. C. Schurig, volunteered their services
as a tribute to the memory of the departed and sang Cardinal
Newman's hymn, *' Lead, Kindly Light."
To me this is all very beautiful, and it is hardly worth while to
mention the fact that the Masons did their final religious ritual over
the remains at the grave.
In life John Sartain was a short, stocky little man, originally
dark complexioned, and with dark hair, face for the last genera-
tion a little pale and sallow, and the slight hair a soft, brown gray.
OLOBE NOTES. 481
He was always erect of bearing and firm and solid of footstep, after
the manner of Englishmen of his type, but at the same time light
of step, agile of movement, and with a touch as dainty as a woman's;
and in this brief outline you have alike the solid character and the
exquisite art of the man.
All the world knows John Sartain as an engraver, and it is not
my purpose to touch upon the specific merits or demerits of his
work. He had many traducers and hard critics, as well as thou-
sands of admirers and genial friends; but this is the sure record of
any man in this world whose work has in it any originality or power.
When I withdrew from the Presbyterian ministry, nearly thirty
years ago, and preached for awhile to a " liberal " congregation in
Philadelphia, John Sartain was one of the first of an exceptionally
gifted coterie of men who extended the right hand of fellowship
and tried to make me feel at home in their circles; and from that
time till this, the year of his death, our friendly meetings were al-
ways cordial and our appreciation of each other's work hearty and
genuine. To me the youth and energy of the old man were always
a marvel, and I could not help expressing my admiration in friendly
words. To him, my own work in " Modern Idols," in my book of
poems, and especially these last eight years in the Globe Review,
seemed a constant surprise, and now and again he would say, " I
do not see how you accomplish so much good work," so we always
met with mutual compliment and parted with a mutual " God
speed you."
Three years ago he sent me as a Christmas present a large and
beautiful artist's proof of his own steel engraving of Coumen's
beautiful " Irene," signed with his own name, in a firm and legible
hand, though the work and the signature were all done when he
was far past eighty years of age.
In the spring of this year, 1897, 1 called for the first time at the
old Edwin Forrest Home, now the Philadelphia School of Design
for Women, to pay my respects, and, as it has happened, to say my
final good-by.
I was delighted to find the old artist in the ample up-stairs parlor
of the mansion, surrounded with most of his old pet pictures that,
in former years, I had seen in the quaint old home on Sansom
Street. He himself seemed as young as he had at any time these
last thirty years, climbed the various stairways of the building with
less fatigue than I experienced, and was, in every way, the same
VOL. VII. — 32.
482 THE GLOBE.
sincere, genial, polite, friendly, upright, sterling, and faithful soul
that he had always been.
He showed me the various class-rooms, explained the different
grades of work, showed me some steel plates that he was then en-
gaged to finish, and after a little friendly chat we again shook hands,
said a final word of farewell, and parted, it seems, forever.
I could say a thousand things of interest in this immediate con-
nection; Ijut — "" there is nothing more to say." May his soul and
the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
In beginning these notes on Mr. Sartain I had also intended to
treat in a similar way the names and undertakings of Charles Dana,
Henry George, and George Pullman; but to do this with any justice
to myself or to the parties named I should have to apply the lash of
criticism; hence of and to these three we will simply say — A long
farewell.
He H: ^ H: H: 4c iH
Touching the proposition that a great deal more attention is
given by the Catholic Church to the intellectual and religious edu-
cation of Catholic girls and young ladies than is given to the intel-
lectual and religious education of Catholic boys and young men,
which proposition — as far as I know — was started by the Rev. M.
P. Heffernan in his article on " Our Boys " — which I noticed in the
Globe Notes of the September issue of this magazine, I have the
following very interesting communication from one of the brightest
and most earnest priests of the Northv/est, who has long been a
subscriber to and a good friend of the Globe Review. He says:
"Dear Friend: At the bottom of page 357 of Globe Notes in
last issue, my attention is called to a subject that I have often
thought of mentioning to you. But I did not, thinking that you
were most likely better informed on it than I. But in connection
with Father Heffernan's statement that a great deal more attention
is given to our Catholic girls than to our Catholic boys, you speak
of ' lacking experience of (he facts ntated.' I am glad of tlic op-
portunity of calling your attention to the truth of his statement,
and I wish to put it in even a stronger light, and apply it to a way
in which its bad effects reach much farther than just the present
generation of the boys themselves. Every priest will tell you that
* mixed marriages ' are one of the worst things in the Church to-
day. Now, I have been over ten years in charge of small parishes,
during that time having had four or five different churches. In
nearly every case the Catholic party was the girl, and in every case
GLOBE NOTES. 483
I could trace the real cause of such marriages to the inequality of
Catholic education for our boys. We send our daughters by hun-
dreds to become graduates of convents, schools, academies, etc., and
if we want suitable Catholic husbands for these hundreds of young
ladies we ought to have an equal number of young men educated
up to the same standard.
" I do not claim that we do any too much for our girls, but that
we do too little for our boys. The only class of young men that I
know who would match these academy young ladies are the ecclesi-
astical students, and that of course is out of the question in a matri-
monial point of view. The result is that the average Catholic young
lady whose vocation is the married state, finds herself in the posi-
tion of either marrying a clod-hopper Catholic or a non-Catholic,
or of remaining single; and there is ' six in one and half a dozen
in the other/ so far as happiness and the salvation of souls is con-
cerned; and in six cases out of every half dozen, spite of all a priest
can do, she takes the non-Catholic, and the children are lost, and
unhappiness here and damnation hereafter is the result.
" I would not dare to say these things had I not had some ex-
perience. At our annual Eetreat last year Et. Rev. Bishop Mc-
Golrick, of Duluth, Minn., said to the priests of this diocese: ^ We
are losing our boys, and they are our parishioners of the future.'
If you can use these remarks some time, do so, and, believe me, you
are ever in the heart and prayers of, yours faithfully, ."
I do not give the name, because I am sure the priest in question
is not seeking the notoriety that this letter will be likely to attain.
It seems proper to add here, however, that his epistle breathes the
same spirit of earnest confidence and affection that pervades many
hundreds of letters that reach me every year, on all sorts of sub-
jects, from priests and other devoted people who are deeply inter-
ested in the " betterment of the masses," and who believe — as I
believe — that all salutary reforms are held, germ-like, in the Cath-
olic Church, and that out of it — broadened, rationalized, and made
more applicable to the growing intelligence and varied life of our
day — must come the true cure for the educational blunders and
the ills of sin, falsehood, and crime that now afflict the world. And
large numbers of these people are looking to the Globe to help
powerfully in this true reform.
I am quite aware that there are many other thousands of Catholics
— priests and people — of a more conservative form of life and ut-
terance, people who, spite of their own knowledge and experience,
like to cherish the false and foolish notion that all the methods and
doings of the Church and of its individual priests are as perfect and
484 THE GLOBE.
infallible as its settled dogmas and standards of morality. 1 am
also aware that these same conservative thousands of people always
shrink from the exposure of any corruptions, blunders, or scandals
on the part of prominent men in the Church; and as many hun-
dreds of this class are also subscribers to and earnest and appre-
ciative readers of the Globe Review, they write me in another vein
to the general effect: Spare the hierarchy, spare the priesthood, spare
Catholics generally; cultivate a milder tone, a sort of " pure tone,"
etc., etc., and so make the Globe Review the universal organ of
American Catholicism, etc., etc.; and the beauty of it all is that
my own constitution is also mild and conservative, and that I like
and trust the conservative everjrwhere rather than the radical and
the ecclesiastical blizzards in or out of the Church. But I am not
editing a picture-magazine or a story-teller for children, and I am so
sick of sycophancy in the guise of humility; so sick of lying in the
guise of imprudence, tyranny, and ambition; so sick of the milk-and-
water twaddle that is administered to Catholics and Protestants in
our day in the name of literature and reform, and so certain that all
liars and unprincipled schemers and scoundrels and wiseacre im-
beciles are the imps of perdition, that I have resolved deliberately
that the supremest conservatism of our day is to call a spade a spade,
a fool a fool, and a land-grabber a land-grabber, an oppressor of the
poor, and an enemy of justice and truth — even if such land-grabber,
tyrant, or scoundrel should by any rare chance be a Catholic or wear
the purple and fine linen of a prelate; in a word, to go to the root
of every falsehood and uproot it.
Perhaps the real cause of a good deal of this sort of trouble in
the Church comes of the fact that " our boys " are not as well
educated as our girls. Ordinarily the girls make the trouble, but
in the Church the men seem to be the mischief-makers. God bless
the girls, all the same; and I may add here that a delightful sprink-
ling of Catholic and Protestant girls — older and younger — ranging
all the way from eighteen to eighty, in all parts of the world, are
among the most enthusiastic readers of and friends of the GLOBii:
Review. In truth, quite a few of them frankly confess that they
envy the editor of the Globe his self-assumed privilege of calling
all offspring of vipers simply the imps of the devil. Hence I am
inclined to believe that this better education of our girls has a virtue
in it not generally seen, and that is worthy of imitation by our boys.
But, to speak more seriously, I hope that priests and others who
OLOBE NOTES. 485
have had experience in the comparative education of our Catholic
girls and boys will ventilate this subject. I have confessed my
general lack of experience of the facts. Nevertheless, my observa-
tion, while leading me to the same general conclusions as those
reached by Father Heffernan and by my Northwest correspondent,
has also taught me that the general fact of inequality complained
of in the letter I have quoted applies equally to Protestant as well
as to Catholic communities.
As a rule, and I think in about the proportion of ninety cases
out of every hundred, even among Protestants, the married woman
is the superior of her husband in the matter of general education
and refinement. This I take to be explainable in the following way:
Our boys, Protestant and Catholic, as a rule are hurried out of
school and college in order to engage in some trade, business, or
lucrative occupation. They are ambitious to take this step on their
own account. They care to have more spending-money than their
parents can often afford. They are naturally and properly looked
upon as the main earners of income for the future, while the girls
are just as properly looked upon as needing milder treatment,
and are expected to be the angel ministers of the future; not orna-
ments merely, but the comforters and entertainers of their hus-
bands, when the latter are weary of work and glad to rest in some
sort of pleasure with their wives. And I for one am not inclined
to complain of this arrangement. I am, in fact, much more in-
clined to complain of just the opposite arrangement, whereby, on
account of the cursed extravagance of our times, the young girls of
tens of thousands of families. Catholic and Protestant, are forced
to become bread-earners and slaves in factories, mills, shops, stores,
and in houses of ill-fame, simply because the honest earnings of
the father or the sons of the family are not sufficient to meet the
exaggerated family demands and the club demands, and the whiskey
demands and the devil's demands generally in these so-called pro-
gressive and hellish times.
In a word, I am generally in favor of the process that educates
our girls more finely and perfectly than our boys, not that I wish
to see any mismating; nor that I want to see the termagant amazons
of the future attempting to run the school-boards, the political
primaries, the rum-shops, the churches, or the newspapers of the
future, but for the very reason that this comparative surplus of re-
fined education is, in truth, a palpable necessity in order that women
4Sfi THE GLOBE.
may be proper and helpful wives for their husbands and proper
mothers for the children of future ages.
Again, I am not sure that the comparative provisions made for
the education of boys and girls in Catholic communities differ to
any extent from said comparative provisions in Protestant circles,
and I have just pointed out the fact that the same general com-
parative inequality of the refinements of married people prevails
in Protestant as in Catholic society.
In truth, the instances of well-mated married people are the ex-
ceptions everywhere. Even among Protestants, where the students
of theology and the young parsons have a right to marry, like any
other Christian worldlings, the educated and refined young man
is pretty sure to select for himself, or to be selected by, a very poorly
educated, coarse, and slovenly woman for a wife. In a word, more
male education does not seem to help men in the matter of mat-
rimony.
The fact is that human nature is a queer sort of cussed and cross-
grain, snarled and twisted and contrary commodity, and marrying
seems often to make matters worse rather than better. As a moral-
ist and a Christian, I have always explained this to myself and to
others on the ground that life is a mode of education and the world
a place of discipline, and the good Lord or the bad devil in charge
of these affairs seems to agree with the editor of the Globe Review
that all the flowers and sunshine and love and happiness of the world
must not get into any one or two families or sects or races, but that
by such discipline as shall lead by and by to a universal human
family, in which love and peace and unselfish ministry shall reigu
everywhere and forever, the true and last marriage of God to tliis
deluded and wandering world may be accomplished.
^Meanwhile I am in favor of educating the girls a little better than
the boys, and of allowing them to choose their husbands anywhere
from among the almost universally bad and the few exceptionally
good boys of these ugly days. I say letting iliem choose, for the gir1<
usually do the choosing anyway.
Meanwhile, again, I am also inclined to assert the proposition,
that the Catholic girl who is not Catholic enough to make a good
and faithful convert out of her Protestant or pagan husband needs to
jro through the processes of social discipline and perhaps of despair
that are often necessary to make decent women even out of well-
meaning Catholic girls. Nevertheless, I am wholly opposed to the
mixf'd marriages which the Church condemns.
OLOBE NOTES. 487
The Globe will welcome any intelligent discussion of this sub-
ject, assured all the while that what is needed is more light in many
domestic, social, and ecclesiastical circles. You cannot hedge in
or wall in the Catholic girls or boys of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.
I am moved to add here that perhaps the earnest complaint of
my correspondent applies more generally to western and country
districts than to our eastern, more crowded and more cultured city
communities. As far as my observation has gone, however, east or
west, I have found that the provisions made for the education of
Catholic boys is alike general, genuine, generous, and competent.
For two years I was a professor in a western Catholic college for
boys and young men, where the number of students averaged over
three hundred, and large majorities of them were preparing for
secular life. The college I refer to, moreover, was one of the small-
est of a very large number of similar colleges in the great West.
A mere glance at any one of our eastern cities will reveal the fact
that Catholic colleges and high-schools for boys and young men
are very numerous and that, literally, tens of thousands of Catholic
beys and young men are being well educated in these schools and
colleges, and educated in a manner and degree to make them com-
petent husbands and intellectual companions for any Catholic girls
that have come in my way or that I have ever heard of.
But girls are very, very queer; their great, great, GREAT grand-
mother, Mrs. Eve, of almost world-wide notoriety, was very queer
to begin with; did not like, or at least was not wholly satisfied with,
the eminently wise and pious and Catholic husband that the Lord
himself gave her, that is, to whom the Lord himself gave her — for
we must not overlook this very proper distinction. Evidently Mrs.
Eve thought the Protestant serpent a more interesting and a more
accomplished gentleman, and, being a woman, could not or would
not help showing her preference for the better educated of the two;
and here is where the real trouble began. By all means let us have
any new light or thought or education on this subject.
It is of far deeper import than the question of temperance, or
Sabbath-keeping, or the flaunting of so-called Catholic Americanism.
Rightly looked into it is the one subject that is being outraged, mis-
understood, abused, and rotted to the core and soul of it by the
greedy, selfish, unprincipled, extravagant, devil-possessed, and all
too fluent and political, and windy and wordy, and shallow-smart
488 THE GLOBE.
American divorceism and other patriotic effusions of these times.
If you have any light on it shed your light abroad, but spare us all
twaddle, and talk and write like honest men.
If I at all understand the phase of the subject that our boys and
girls have attained in these Globe ISTotes, it was out of this little
willfulness of Mrs. Eve — that is, her preference for the more cult-
ured fellow, the Yankee Pro"testant who knew it all and had no
scruples — that the Honorable Mr. Cain, LL.D., the first murderer,
came and became the father of all murderers and thieves and trust-
sharks and liars and land-grabbers and gold-bugs up to these very
days.
In a word, as I said in my first few comments upon Father Hef-
fernan's article, the subject really takes hold of the springs of so-
ciety and of the human race.
I understand that the industrious but not overly competent edi-
tor of the Colorado Catholic has gone, or is going, to Europe to study
up this whole question of education. Over there they are supposed
to know all about it. At all events they have wrecked the old civ-
ilizations of Greece and Eome, and the later nations of Spain and
France, on the basis of what they thought they knew about it; and
when said editor returns, if he cannot tell us all about the subject
and make us wise I move that it be referred to next yearns Chau-
tauqua and Catholic summer schools, and if they cannot settle it
I guess it will have to be referred to the girls and boys of succeeding
ages, as it has been constantly referred time out of mind.
In fact, however, there are still other famous and American
tribunals in our day. The whole subject of intellectual and relig-
ious education might, for instance, and with great impropriety, be
referred to the female executive gosling committee of the Young
People's Christian Endeavor brood, or to Grover Cleveland of
Princeton, or to President McKinley, or to Mark Hanna, or to John
Wanamaker, or John Ireland. These gentlemen are said to have
graduated in all schools — of trickery — but I have no confidence,
personally, in the two last named.
During the eight years of its existence the Globe Review has
now and again ridiculed the scare-crow habit of our National and
State legislators to make needless and contemptible laws on all
sorts of subjects; as if a lot of silly laws, made by half-taught clod-
hoppers with axes to grind, could by any stretch of Providence
have any good effects upon the community either in preventing
GLOBE NOTES. 489
crime or in the positive advancement of virtue or any true phase
of real civilization!
Finally, in reviewing Cardinal Gibbons's book in the June Globe,
and especially with reference to his assertion that the American
people were generally law-abiding, I emphasized the foolish ten-
dency just named by asserting that while we made enough laws in
ten years to gag the universe for all time, nobody really minded
these laws or cared particularly about keeping them or breaking
them.
Take, for instance, our everlastingly contradictory and barbaric
array of tariff laws. No man keeps them if he can possibly evade
them. So of our interstate railway laws. They are on their face
an unlawful interference with the natural rights of private cor-
porations, and every man takes pleasure in ignoring them and in
seeing them ignored. So of our liquor laws — that is, of our pro-
hibition laws — and our " Sabbath " laws; they are simply the laugh-
ing-stock of all respectable and intelligent people in our own coun-
try and in other countries, and no man dreams of keeping them, if
it suits his inclination or convenience to break or disregard them.
So of our emigration laws, which that shallow-pated paddy Pow-
derly wants increased in number and severity. They are so un-
American, unjust, and inhuman that every citizen not paid to exe-
cute them takes pleasure in seeing their violation. In truth, as
far as I can see, the only use of this muck-heap of legal hurrahism
is to put money in the pockets of stupid legislators incapable of
understanding or performing their regular duty, and so of making
our whole legislative system a by-word and a scorn among all nations
of men.
Looked at with the eye of reason, the habit here ridiculed seems
to argue first that Americans, as a whole, are such insufferable sin-
ners that they need more laws than all the rest of the world, and
second, that the fellows engaged in the making of these laws are a
lot of bunglers utterly unworthy of the occupation they are en-
gaged in.
As a rule, lawyers and legislators are such nurslings and slaves
of red tape that it is very difficult to get any gleam of common-
sense into their heads; but the American Bar Association, during
its recent session at Cleveland, 0., took hold of the scare-crow legis-
lation I have for years been complaining of.
An address by Governor Griggs of New Jersey dealt with the
490 THE GLOBE.
evils of excessive law-making in the United States. " No age of
English or American history has ever seen such activity and pro-
fusion in legal enactments as now prevails," said Governor Griggs,
and he gave these figures to prove his statement for the United
States:
" The statistics that follow show the extent of this tendency in
the legislatures of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, and Illinois, in the present year.
" In Massachusetts about 1,300 distinct propositions for legis-
lation were before the legislature or its committees. Of these, 628,
nearly one-half, became laws.
" In New York the bills introduced in the two houses numbered
4,533, of which about 1,300 were finally passed. Of these 797 be-
came laws, the remainder of the 1,300 passed bills failing to re-
ceive the approval of the governor.
" In New Jersey 657 bills were introduced, of which 297 passed
both houses, and 207 became laws, 90 failing by reason of execu-
tive disapproval, a very marked decrease in the amount of legisla-
tion as compared with some previous years.
" In Pennsylvania 1,566 bills were introduced; 483 were passed
by both houses, and al30ut 400 became laws, the rest having been
vetoed by the governor.
" Illinois has a somewhat better record. There were 1,174 bills
introduced, and 195 passed, of which, however, only three were
vetoed, so that the addition to the statute law of that State com-
prises only 129 chapters.
" I have no means of supplying similar statistics for other States,
but think it safe to affirm that the same degree of productiveness
will be found in nearly all of them.
" These thousands of propositions to alter the law of the land
cover almost every conceivable object of government, every depart-
ment of public and private life; they extend to all kinds of business,
to trade, commerce, municipal government, sanitary and police
regulations, to the domain of morals as well as to the fields of specu-
lation and political philosophy. Many of them were intended to
correct errors in the legislation of the preceding year. Naturally
the more careless acts one legislature passes the more blunders there
will be for the next one to repair."
Governor Griggs favors special commissions of eminent lawyers
for revision of drafts and codification of laws, and adds:
" A censor of bills is not permissible under our system of legis-
lation, but there can be a rule of public opinion, a sentiment of
prudence and conservatism that will enable every legislator to re-
ject all measures not properly revised and corrected, all measures
that have no positive public necessity to justify their adoption. It
GLOBE NOTES. 401
ought not to be enough that a proposed law does no harm; it should
1)6 required of it that it shall have the quality of positive benefit
in order to justify its enactment.
" There are some principles of legislative policy that are so plain
and safe that they need only to be stated to be approved.
" Make sure that the old law is really deficient. Be careful to
consider whether the inconvenience arising from the deficiency of
the old law is of enough importance to deserve an act of the legis-
lature to cure it.
" Be careful that the remedy be not worse than the disease.
Avoid experiments in law-making, especially if recommended by
men or parties who are void of knowledge or wanting in respect
for established customs.
" Do not go on the idea that the world is out of joint and you
were born to set it right.
" Observe accuracy in the use of language, and avoid the use of
ambiguous expressions.
" It is one of the just criticisms of our jurisprudence that it has
not a technical vocabulary by which legal conceptions can be ex-
pressed with as much accuracy as naturalists distinguish genera
and species.^^
These quotations indicate that once in a while something good
can come out of New Jersey, and the Globe congratulates Governor
Griggs alike on his good sense and the timeliness and clearness of
his utterances.
As far as I can recall there are four little laws of the old Deca-
logue that cover most of the ground of all our modern scare-crow
American legislation:
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not kill.
It is said that in the days of Horace Walpole there was a move-
ment on foot in England to take all the " nots " out of the Deca-
logue, or rather to transpose them — that is, to take them out of the
commandments in which they now occur and put them in where
they do not now occur — and the motive is said to have been a good
one, namely, to make modem British law consistent with modern
British practice. As far as I know the transposition was never
actually made except in practice.
The aim of American legislation seems to be just the opposite
of the English, namely, to make our laws as inconsistent with our
practice as language and general ignorance of the art of law-making
could possibly suggest.
492 THE GLOBE.
In truth, were we to execute in any justice the four little item3
of the Decalogue referred to more than half of the population of
America would be in State prisons before the end of another year,
and the other half would not need very much legislation.
Still, instead of swearing by Moses and the prophets, our Inger-
soll atheism and our New England conceit want to go Moses ten
better and dream that by a perpetual panorama of severe and showy
laws we shall somehow establish that virtue which ninety per cent,
of our legislators themselves trample on and despise. In truth, if
said National and State legislatures would only hire about sixty
of the largest derricks or a few powerful locomotives to lift or drag
the small motes of evil out of their own eyes they might perhaps
see a little more clearly how to legislate for their fellow-sinners.
^ 4c ^ 4c iic % He
Since the editor of the Globe Eeview has finally and fully con-
cluded not to enter into any more sharp controversies with those
august and brilliant Catholic editors who have tried to malign and
abuse him, he finds great pleasure in calling attention to a few of
those marked evidences of Catholic editorial and mutual admira-
tion which go to show how these dear infallible gentlemen love one
another.
According to our esteemed and spirited little contemporary The
Review, of St. Louis —
" The Monitor is hard on the American Catholic Quarterly Beview.
' The trouble with the Quarterly,' it says, ^ is that it is evidently de-
signed to be published in a cemetery and read by mummies. Like
a morgue wagon its freight must be dead. Deadness and learning,
thank the Lord, are not synonymous, and the Quarterly is the best
proof thereof.^ "
Now when one considers that the name of the eloquent and witty
Archbishop of Philadelphia adorns or used to adorn the cover of
this dignified Catholic Quarterly as its editor, the comment of the
Monitor seems to border on " irreverence." How is this, Mr. Preuss?
To be candid, it seems to me that the editor of the Antigonish
Casket ought to get up and call the editor of the Monitor an " in-
sufferable egotist and a wretched humbug.'^ But there is no ac-
counting for tastes.
And here is that scholarly and reverend editor of the Colorado
Catholic speaking in such Christian delicacy of our amiable and
gifted friend Preuss, of The Review, that one might almost suppose
them to be modern saints. Hear what the Colorado man says:
GLOBE NOTES. 493
" That little disturber of the peace, The Review, of St. Louis,
which snarls and shows its harmless little teeth on the slightest
provocation, still continues its career of vilification and falsehood,
and asserts that the Colorado Catholic repudiates an article which
appeared a short time ago in its columns. We stand by every word
of the article, and suggest to this sycophantic and pharisaical anti-
Irish sheet of St. Louis that it reproduce the paragraph in full for
the benefit of its readers, who have undoubtedly been misled by
The Review's willful and deliberate misrepresentations. Just to show
The Review and others of its ilk that we do not repudiate the article
in question, we reproduce it, and avow its every sentiment as our
firm conviction and belief. At the same time we do not undertake
the superhuman job of furnishing intelligence for the afore-named
journal and others who see through its glasses."
In simple justice to our youthful friend of The Review the editor
of the Globe Review begs to suggest that if the editor of the
Colorado Catholic should ever undertake to furnish intelligence for
Editor Preuss, the Colorado man had better wait till he return from
Europe; and that even then he may have to purchase the desirable
commodity rather than attempt to evolve it out of his own con-
sciousness. But this is only the suggestion of a peacemaker who sin-
cerely enjoys seeing manifestations of love among the brethren.
Dear boys, let us have peace.
*******
And how is this for prelatical modesty? The Review says —
" Ex-Rector Keane intends to sail on his return voyage October
23d. He says he * returns to his post of duty with real pleasure '
and that his work in Rome ^ will be sweetened by the thought that
his vacation next year will probably be spent in America.^
" Meanwhile, to keep his memory green among us, he has written
a long article for the daily press on Rome, the Pope and the Car-
dinals, his duties in the ^ Eternal City ' as the representative of the
American Church, etc., etc."
And the New York Independent, speaking of this man, recently
said: " Bishop Keane was called to Rome and made a titular arch-
bishop and consultor; and he returned to this country several
months ago, and has had the right to speak as the representative
of the Holy See," etc., etc.
Now, in plain language, the last line quoted from The Review,
purporting to give, and doubtless giving, Keane's own estimate of
himself — and these lines from the Independent, doubtless inspired
by Keane, or by one of his friends — are simply presumptuous and
494 THE GLOBE.
unblushing falsehoods; and the following points are much nearer
the truth:
First, Keane was deposed from the Keetorship of the Washington
Catholic University because of his spendthrift, spread-eagle, and
un-Catholic methods of managing said University. Second, having
grown entirely too large for his clothes, he was called to Rome, after
a voluntary and very pompous trip to California, in order that there,
among his superiors, he might gradually learn modesty, humility,
and a comparative silence till he had found his true level among
the Catholic hierarchy. Third, he was never appointed in any of-
ficial or unofficial way as " the representative of the American
Church " at Rome, has never acted in that capacity, and none but
sycophant Catholics or Protestant idiots can possibly speak of him
as ever having acted in such capacity. Fourth, in coming to this
country for his vacation last summer he came as a private gentle-
man and ought to have so acted; for he had no authority, verbal
or written, to act as " the representative " of the Holy See in Amer-
ica or elsewhere, and has never so acted.
In a word, while an excellent gentleman, and doubtless a faithful
Catholic, Keane is, in his posing public attitudes and speeches, a
wind-blown, blustering humbug, and the first thing for the entire
Catholic Church in America or elsewhere to do is to have done for-
ever with the kind of humbuggery that Keane and his master, Ire-
land, represent in this poor world.
In fact, I was supposing that Mgr. O'Connell, author of a re-
cent and silly burlesque speech on Catholic Americanism, was the
representative of the " American Church " at Rome, but it seems
that the late Rector Keane has now ascended to this honor; that
is, in his own conceit. Allow me to give these noisy gentlemen a
pertinent hint. Let them both get their heads together, after some
morning of mutual holy communion, and resolve, firsl of all, to
tell the world just what part they both played in hoodwinking and
deceiving Mgr. Satolli when he first came to this country and landed
in New York; next let them resolve to make a clean breast of the
part that their master, John Ireland, played in trying to bully
Cardinal Satolli into reinstating Keane as Rector of the Washington
University, just before the Cardinal ablegate was about to sail for
Rome; next let them make a clean revelation of what O'Connell
did as lobbyist for Ireland at the recent German conference, with
a view of making Ireland the next Pope; next let Ireland join
GLOBE NOTES, 405
these two slaves of his and explain just why he wrote his contempt-
ible partisan political letter of last year, and just why he wanted
McKenna Attorney-General, with probable promotion to the Su-
preme Court of the United States, etc., etc., and I here solemnly
affirm that a paper coming from this triplet of Catholic American
sharpers will do more to explain Catholic Americanism and stamp
it as the veriest scheming Yankeeism of hell than anything else
they can do or say, and hence be of greater service to all Catholics
throughout the world than anything that the combined intellects
of these three eminent American Catholics can do or say during
their present or immortal existence.
Eegarding the disgusting controversy over the resignation of
Mgr. Schroeder from the Washington Catholic University the edi-
tor of the Globe refrains from speaking at present, except to say
that the proprietors and keepers of the restaurants -jvhere Schroeder
used to get his beer were and are doubtless men of honor and gen-
tlemen compared with the low-bred clerical scoundrels who put
detectives on Schroeder's heels; and if "the last Baltimore Coun-
cil " really perpetrated the following —
" In order to remove from the clergy the occasion for disgrace,
such as is generally connected with saloons and taverns, we en-
tirely forbid them to visit and patronize them except when it may
be necessary in travel,^' T advise all the sensible prelates of America
to get together in Greater New York as soon as possible and rescind
this silly and ungrammatical pretention. I am a total abstainer
myself, but I do not like to see men treated as if they were chil-
dren.
*******
When I was " down East " last summer I found that some of the
literary people were much amused over a little song that was going
the rounds, each verse of which ended with the refrain,
" And even Philadelphia has got a wiggle on."
I tried to explain to those giddy people that Philadelphia was
not so slow as they seemed to think, but it was of no use — the mock-
ing line seemed entirely satisfactory, and all serious argument out
of place.
Little did those " down-easters " understand how many quiet but
aggressive virtues and vices are constantly going on in the Quaker
City. Indeed, I fancy that they never heard of an important new
496 THE .GLOBE.
organization that has been evolving itself in Philadelphia during
the past year.
In newspaper parlance, the corporation I refer to is known as
The United Gas Improvement Company; in common parlance, and
for short, it is known as The U. G. I. Co.; but as both of these
definitions have a common, worldly, and commercial sound, and as
the leading members of the trust — for it is a trust with a vengeance
— are said to be saints — sometimes mentioned in this Review un-
der the title of John Wanamaker & Co. — I have concluded, for
literary purposes, to call this band of pious Quakers The Phila-
delphia Children of Light, and if there are any rascals down East,
or in New York, or out West, who think that they are quicker,
smarter, more illuminated, or more devilish in the use of their God-
given faculties of selfish scheming than these modern children of
light of Philadelphia they are very much mistaken.
The avowed objects of this new club are: First, to improve the
general municipal government of the City of Brotherly Love. Sec-
ond, and more specifically, to steal — that is, to purchase at a rascally
low figure — the Philadelphia gas-works, improve them, and to give
the pious Quakers more and better light on all the subjects that
now occupy their minds and hands — especially their hands, etc.
Third — but not at all mentioned in the by-laws of the club — to put
money by the million in the pockets of its members, and incident-
ally to get at the water- works by and by; and thus, having the city
railroads, the gas-works, and the water-works in their hats, so to
speak, to control the politics of the dear old town of Billy Penn.
Everywhere people are crying for purer and more effective mu-
nicipal government. The Rev. Dr. Parkhurst of New York got
crazy on this subject about three or four years ago, but having
found that the ways of men were not only darker but deeper than
his clerical verdancy dreamed of, he has at last concluded that he
had better mind his own business and stick close to his trade as a
preacher. Another young chap, by the name of Roosevelt, at-
tempted this same feat as a sort of righthand-man to his pastor,
Parkhurst, but Teddy Roosevelt was as glad to get a quiet place
amid the honors of navy life as Parkhurst was to fall back upon
the soft cushions of pulpit luxury; and both of these saints, having
taken to regular self-indulgent sainthood, after the manner of New
York saints — why. Judge Van Wyck and Tammany are in charge
again.
GLOBE NOTES. 497
For the last eight years the Globe has been teaching a good many
American politicians, saints, and business men that the only true
reform is to reform yourself and induce as many people as possible
to follow your example; and the Globe holds that man as a knave
and a fool who preaches political or reform doctrines, in or out of
the church, that he does not practice himself and is not willing to
die for; but the Parkhursts and the Eoosevelts of New York and
the Children of Light of Philadelphia were neither born nor reared
that way.
Wanamaker, for instance, has been reforming young men and
women in his Sunday-school and in his sweat-shop stores for thirty
years, until he has grown ten-times a millionnaire, while many hun-
dreds of his improved young men and women have died in poverty,
cursing the very name of Wanamaker; and all this while, though
smart as a steel-trap at squeezing the life out of the rats that serve
him, he has himself never learned the first principles of truth or
justice or honor.
But we must have better municipal governments, and hence the
Children of Light are now engaging in the gas business in Phila-
delphia.
The tendency of Western politicians — and God pity the crack-
brained idiots — is to put every possible public enterprise in the
hands of municipal, State, or National control. Philadelphia has
tried this plan with her gas and water supply for a great many
years, and now she — the dear old Quaker maiden — has reached the
following very illogical conclusions — viz., the gas supply of Phila-
delphia is very poor — can't see even to read the Scriptures at night
to Wanamaker's Bible classes and the various screaming women*s
clubs of the city — etc. The city authorities cannot manufacture
good gas — in the first place they are ignorant, in the second place
they are venal, in the third place they are lazy, and in the fourth
place they are changing as the parties and the personal ambi1;ions
of Mayors and Councils change — in a word, they can't do it, you
know. Therefore, there must be some new organization known as
"The Children of Light" — "responsible" men, successful busi-
ness men — men who have already squeezed millions of dollars out
of the sweating poor; men who know how to get good work done
for low pay and how to make their five hundred per cent, every
year and snap their fingers in the face of truth and virtue and justice
and the Church and God Almighty, and simply play with the fools
who trust them, etc., etc.
498 THE OLOBE.
Xow the things to be said about this are: First, if the city gov-
ernment of Philadelphia cannot command the right sort of ability
to manufacture gas and supply it to her citizens, it proves that she
is just the stupid old steer-calf some of us have been calling her
these last forty years. Second, that if the city government of Phila-
delphia cannot do this simple stroke of common manufacture of
gas in a proper and profitable way, the said government had better
resign, and that all its representatives, without exception, had bet-
ter go into private retirement in the darkest and quietest corner
of hell and never open their incapable eyes or mouths again. Third,
that if the government of the city of Philadelphia, while admitting
its incapacity for the manufacture of gas, still presumes to have
sense enough to govern the city of Philadelphia, it is just another
proof of that conceited asininity and stupidity that some of us
have noted and commented upon as being the ruling characteristic
of Philadelphia's representative men during the last fifty years.
Fourth, if the government of Philadelphia, admitting its own in-
ability to make honest and good gas and make honest money for
the government, still expects or pretends to expect that Wanamaker
& Co. — whose sweat-shop and shoddy methods of business are
known to all men — are the proper persons to be intrusted with the
Philadelphia gas-works, it seems to prove two or three things, serious
enough in their way.
For instance — First, that the representatives of the present gov-
ernment of Philadelphia have been bought at a high figure before
they could or would make such everlasting asses of themselves be-
fore the public. Second, that it is as hopeless as it is silly to expect
better gas or better prices from such Children of Light as would
bribe or attempt to bribe such saintly souls as the present Mayor
Warwick & Co. of the city of brotherly love.
Some facts given me when I was last in Philadelphia seem to
argue that something of this sort really has been done. For in-
stance, the immaculate Philadelphia authorities having concluded
that they were too idiotic or too lazy to make good gas, and having
concluded to sell the gas-works, also next concluded to make the
transaction as quiet and harmonious as possible. Hence they did
not advertise for bids or bidders, but a few of the saints got to-
gether and invited a few other saints to consider how it was best
and mutually most profitable to do the thing.
Then it was that the saintly genius of the Children of Light —
OLOBE NOTES. 499
headed by Wanamaker & Co. — shone forth in all its brilliancy,
about as follows: We, that is, Tom Dolan, J. C. Bullitt, Rudolph
Blankenburg, Charles Cramp, and I — your own pious John — all
honorable and responsible men — as witness the Keystone Bank
record, etc. — will form a company, to be known as The Children
of Light, with a capital of ten millions of dollars — $1,000,000 to be
paid to the city for its gas plant; $3,000,000 to be distributed among
you incompetent scoundrels who admit that you cannot run a gas
plant, and among such of the Philadelphia newspapers as will de-
fend the transfer through thick and thin, and also among the of-
ficers representative of any companies inimical to The Children
of Light, who, in their worldly ambition, may determine to offer
better terms to the city than we honorable and responsible gentle-
men are offering you; $6,000,000 to be held as a working capital,
and to be issued in gold bonds to any other worldly people who may
at any time be inclined to squeal.
Ladies and gentlemen, the above is about what has taken place
in Philadelphia during the last six months under the guise of mu-
nicipal reform and better gas; and the transfer has actually been
made, but various suits in equity are pending, and before the final
exposure and explosion, which is sure to come, Philadelphia will
be apt to get more light — a sort of halo-light around the brows of
her saints — than she could possibly get out of the mutilated
books of the Keystone Bank failure, or any way out of the old
method of lighting things by the city government.
I may add in conclusion that I have the names of men who have
been heavily bribed in this Children of Light transfer, and that
various responsible gentlemen in Philadelphia have offered me all
the facts, dates, names, information, amounts, etc., etc., but I pre-
fer that these facts should come out in the courts when the great
representative newspapers of American, Cuban, and Hawaiian re-
form will be obliged to take some notice of the same.
As a matter of fact, at least two outside and wretchedly worldly
corporations did make bids for the Philadelphia gas plant, one of
these companies offering $4,000,000 and the other $6,000,000 for
the same. It is well understood among business men that the plant
and privileges obtained by the Children of Light syndicate are
v/orth far more than this; but had this amount been openly ac-
cepted by the saintly idiots who govern Philadelphia, the whole
of it would have gone to the city treasury and the individual imbe-
500 THE GLOBE.
ciles and scoundrels who now run the affairs of the city would have
got nothing but the contempt they deserve; at all events, their
personal perquisites would have been less by several millions of
dollars than they are said to be under the patronage of the Children
of Light society.
As Wanamaker, Dolan & Co. are the leading spirits in this Chil-
dren of Light movement, this may be a good place to recall the
fact that when Wanamaker was Postmaster General, during Har-
rison's tea-party administration, he resolved to make a sweat-shop
concern out of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and so go
down to fame as the great Postmaster of economic reform. In a
word, he notified the Western Union that after a certain date he
would only pay so much for the services rendered the Government
by the telegraph company, precisely as he would notify a travelling
clerk or salesman in his own sweat-shops, and concluded that there
was an end of it — the dear verdant saint; and as a matter of fact
the smart newspapers, who care so much more for advertising than
they care for truth, all united in a mild sort of commendation of
the Wanamaker economy in managing the Postal Department.
About the same time the editor of the Globe wrote an article,
called " The Stupidest Man on Earth,'' showing that Wanamaker's
position in Harrison's Cabinet had cost him more than his salary
and perquisites for four years were worth, and above all that his
fight with the Western Union had been a wretched failure; that
the Western Union had their own prices, that Wanamaker could
not make a sweat-shop concern out of that company, and that its
managers would whip Wanamaker out of his boots in the long run.
Within ten days of this writing — November 29, 1897 — the Public
Ledger of Philadelphia published the fact that the Supreme Court
of the United States had just given its final ruling in favor of
awarding to the Western Union Company about $250,000 growing
out of this old Wanamaker sweat-shop foolery; and yet Philadel-
phians still seem to think that whatever this pious cheap-John
touches is eminently wise and reliable.
Let him take his enormous advertisem. \ts out of the Philadel-
phia and New York newspapers for one year, and there is no editor
in either city so mean but he would paint Wanamaker, Dolan & Co.,
and the entire band of this new Children of Light club, in colors
blacker than Tom Nast ever applied to Bill Tweed.
William Henrt Thorne.
^^
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